LÉONARD-SIMÉON
The enchanted forest
03.10. – 21.11.2010

Trees, light, spiritual colors, the works in the exhibition “The Enchanted Forest” are simple but complex. It is a collection of photographs reimagined through graphic tools and presented as photographic artworks.
The works refer to Auroville, a place of peace “in the making” in South India. With these works, the artist Leonard Pietri wants to bring us closer to the spiritual vision of Auroville. Supported by UNESCO for 40 years and already considered as a “Future World Heritage Site”, 43 nations live there a dream of freedom and equality in all diversity in harmony with nature.
The 32-year-old Parisian Léonard-Siméon lived with his parents in the “City of Dawn” as a child and returned there in 2006, where he underwent artistically liberating processes. “I was jogging in the forest, as I often do, and after half a second I felt how the environment had changed,” the artist recalls. “I had the feeling that everything around me had turned white, and I felt the forest around me become a different reality, the same reality, but shining in white. This moment affected me so much that I had to express it.”

Over the past three years, Léonard-Siméon has taken photographs in this forest and developed an entire group of works from them. “Sentences emerged during my walks in the forest,” he recalls. I walked there almost every day, often taking photographs, and then I began to paint what I felt.”
This resulted in many paintings and dozens of photographs, which the artist superimposed graphically. He also added his personal mantra OM NAMO BHAGAVATE to the paintings in his own handwriting.
“I wanted to show this forest that I adore, but with an expanded view. I want to transmit its warmth that I felt myself when I had this experience of the white light. I call it a divine light myself.”
Leonrad Pietri’s works have so far mainly been shown in India and Paris. The first section of “The Enchanted Forest” was shown at the Pitanga Gallery in Auroville in March 2010. The exhibition at the Kunsthalle Bremerhaven is both a continuation and a completely new interpretation of the works.

Curated by Anne Schmeckies.