RODIN $N ENGAGEMENT photography by akim monet
AN ENGAGEMENT One February morning, I visited the Musée Rodin in Paris, on a suggestion by Jérôme Le Blay, author of the Catalogue Critique de l’Oeuvre Sculpté d’Auguste Rodin, to knock on the door of this institution in hope of obtaining permission to take some shots. Armed with my 35mm, I made a big tour of the icy garden where only the bronzes braved the harsh light. I discovered a medieval, gothic Rodin -but nevertheless strangely inviting because the emotions that play-out are familiar -both on the faces and in the postures -they belong to humanity. Rodin appropriates these feelings and returns them –he defies time in a vertiginous manner. I entered the museum where I found the love scenes, the carnal encounters so dear to Rodin. They made me dizzy. The photographs reproduced here have earned me an invitation from the museum, on a Monday without public, to commune with the work of the sculptor who for me embodies the notion of commitment -to the past, but also to the future -in life and in the Hereafter, in short the engagement with the study of the human condition. If the "expressionist artist has the desire to express a conception of a turbulent and rebellious world, and share with the viewer brutal and extreme sensations," the images that I captured at the Rodin Museum reflect this state of mind; I found in Rodin a timeless echo to my darkest thoughts, but also a resonance to my deep conviction that only redeeming love can save us from ourselves.
AKIM MONET
SUFFERING
COME
HEROIC
WORRY
THE SURVIVOR
IMPLORATION
THE SCREAM
THE BABY IN HELL
THE COUPLE
INTIMACY
TENDERNESS
ECSTASY
CLIMAX
THE CANDELABRA
MusĂŠe Rodin 79 Rue de Varenne 75007 Paris Tel.: +33-1-44 18 61 10 http://www.musee-rodin.fr
http://www.akimmonet.com Š akim monet 2009
All right reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the copyright holder, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.
RODIN
$N ENGAGEMEN7
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6LQFH KLV SKRWRJUDSKLF ZRUN KDV EHHQ VKRZQ LQ 1HZ <RUN DQG 0H[LFR 3DVVDJH WR ,QGLD *HQHYD DQG %HOJLXP +RPDJH WR *DXGL DQG 3DULV 3HUJDPRQ 6HYHUDO RI KLV ZRUNV DUH LQ WKH 'HXWVFKH %DQN &ROOHFWLRQ 1HZ <RUN In addition to the many articles that have appeared in the international press, a monograph about Akim Monetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s photography was published in 2003: The Space Between (New York: Infinite Point Press). isbn 0-9728647-0-9