©Aqua Mater

A true ode to the fragility of water, the pavilion in Guada d'Amazonia offers a singular natural setting for the photographs of Sebastião Salgado, reminding us how subtle the balance of nature remains.

An invitation to travel but also to contemplation, AQUA MATER offers a sensory & spiritual experience. Subdued lighting, musical and sound ambiance by the composer François-Bernard Mâche, tropical mist plunge visitors into an atmosphere of serenity. A privileged setting to invite them to question and raise their awareness of the environmental issues of today and tomorrow.

©Aqua Mater

“The sounds of water have always been a great source of inspiration for me. Already in 1976, in my musical show Da capo, at the Avignon festival, I had a naked couple dance to the rhythms of the sea. Shortly after, in Amorgos I had transcribed various water recordings to synchronize them with a small chamber orchestra. When Sebastião Salgado asked me to accompany his exhibition, I was enthusiastic. The great admiration I have for his talent, and this old fascination for the proposed theme made me immediately accept.

The undertaking is not, however, very easy. The path is narrow between two imperatives: to serve the emotions of the spectators without transforming them into listeners, and at the same time to organize the sounds so that their sequence seems natural and in harmony with the strong images of the photographer. In addition, visitors circulate at their own pace without necessarily listening to everything, but while accepting what they hear as a possible expression of what they are looking at.

I tried to fulfill this task by organizing what since 1960 I baptized phonographies, and after having practiced several times. Neither music nor documentaries, these sound analogues of photography can seek, like photography, to transcend the simple identification of a subject to reveal symbolic and poetic beyonds, and to serve as a support for meditation.

It's a long aquatic epic that I organized with these “phonographies”. In a vast desert space the winds gradually bring storm clouds, laden with rain. It is hardly if we guess a worried human presence. The flow of the waters leads them in streams and rivers to the sea. Near the shores, the flowing water articulates mysterious percussions in caves. Another storm and other rains make the drops and bubbles dance, then all this animation dries up to recreate a space revealed up there by the passage of an airplane. »

Francois-Bernard Mache

©Aqua Mater

An ode to the fragility of water

The all-natural AQUA MATER bamboo pavilion offers a unique setting for Sebastião Salgado's photographs and offers a peaceful space conducive to reflection and raising awareness among all audiences on the need to preserve our global water resources.

Let's remove salt water from the oceans, unusable for us. The frozen water of the poles, which is out of reach. The one buried deep in the ground, which is inaccessible...

What do we have left? Just 0,02% of all water. The equivalent of Lake Baikal, in Russia, the largest lake in the world. It is the amount of water granted each year by nature to humans and all other terrestrial species.

Pratical information

AQUA MATER exhibition
From April 1 to September 22, 2022
Forecourt of La Defense, 92400 Courbevoie

Duration: Tuesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 19 p.m.

Fees :

• Adult € 16
• Student – ​​job seeker – PMR 14€
• Child 11€
• Group 12€
• Family (2 adults & 2 children) €46,50

To know more : https://www.aquamater.art