As part of an anthropological and social photographic project which started in Cuba in 2016 and will be continued in Israel in 2024, Pierre-Elie de Pibrac (born in 1983) travelled around Japan between December 2019 and August 2020 to create a series of images entitled Hakanai
Sonzai (“I feel myself like an ephemeral creature”). During his immersive quest, the artist met a number of unique individuals. By involving them in his photographic project he sought to express each of their personal stories: yakuzas, survivors of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, hikikomori (modern-day recluses living in social isolation, often spending most of their time in their bedroom) or the “vanished”, those who choose to disappear…
Pierre-Elie de Pibrac initiated a personal exchange with his subjects by sending them blank notebooks and disposable cameras, then maintained regular correspondence before working with them in natural settings and lighting. The time it took to establish the relationship is echoed by the long exposure of each photo taken in their room.
In contrast to these large-format images, where the face of the other is omnipresent, a series of black and white photos offers sumptuous details of an eternal Japan with no human presence: waterfalls, unfathomably deep lakes, thick and oppressive forest canopies, and abandoned structures reveal the violence behind the unsettling beauties that make up the Japanese landscape.
Inspired by the Japanese tradition of ukiyo-e, the subtle art of woodblock prints and paintings, these black and white photos evoke an acute awareness of the precariousness of existence. This idea of impermanence is also present in the notion of Mono no aware, a sensibility for the ephemeral, which is omnipresent in Japan, a land where the random forces of unpredictable and mystical nature, with its recurrent earthquakes and seaquakes, weigh heavily on the lives of the population.
Curators: Pierre-Elie de Pibrac, Laurence Madeline, Claire Bettinelli
The exhibition podcast: discover the origins of the exhibition with Pierre-Elie de Pibrac.
In partnership with Studio Nova.
With the support of
With the support of Archimed, Asteria Real Estate, Bechu & Associés, Frédéric de Brem and Mats Carduner.
Publication: Hakanai Sonzai (French)
By photography historian Michel Poivert
Atelier EXB publishing
80 B&W and colour photographs
55 €