La vie en vert
On 7 December 2022, Galleria del Cembalo is glad to open in its rooms La vie en vert, a new photographic project by Karmen Corak, Italian artist of Slovenian origin who has studied graphic arts in Croatia and conservation and restoration of artworks on paper in Italy, Japan and Austria. The show will be open until 3 February 2023.
The exhibited photographs are evidence of a revered nature, of a landscape contemplation that brings the observer to communicate with them. The images are the result of a creative process that moves from the photographer’s love for gardens, along with a deep interest for the traditional culture of the Far East. Indeed it’s from Japan, on the Shikoku Island, that the washi paper comes from, a paper which is ideal for printing these images.
Taken in different botanic gardens in Italy, Slovenia, Germany, France, China and Japan, Karmen Corak’s photos assign a cult value to the impermanence and fading of the landscape, reflecting on its poetic significance. In this way the images suggest, even through the smallest details, the spirituality of her connection with the landscape and the depth of an interior relationship based on the vibrant interaction between memory and present.
A famous phrase by Friedrich Hölderlin has had a strong impact on the photographer: “Full of merit, yet poetically, man dwells on this Earth”. In order to guide the visitor among the photographs on display, Corak writes that this reflection on Nature “evokes in me the memory of a childlike joy and the discovery of the ‘green’ feeling in the family garden. The light reflected on the plants stayed as a reminiscence in my eyes. The contemplation of Nature refers to everything that has been seen in the past, in the imagination, or to an intimate experience, the revelation of a moment in time. The landscape is an inexhaustible source that invites to interaction”.
