A photography exhibition offering a glimpse of the structural changes in Taiwan brought upon by environmental and political shifts will run in Paris from Feb. 3 through 27.
"Lendemain Chagrin,” meaning a destroyed future, seeks to return meaning to ruins brought upon by the passage of time through the lens of four Taiwanese photographers ― Yang Shun-fa (楊順發), Hung Cheng-jen (洪政任), Yao Jui-chung (姚瑞中), and Chen Po-i (陳伯義).
Encompassing physical buildings devastated by natural disasters, financial and industrial collapse during the economic downturn, and the trail of sociopolitical migration, the exhibition strives to show that hope still exists among destruction.
Yang and Hung are Kaohsiung natives who have spent over a decade chronicling the dynamic shifts in identity, historic importance, and contemporary development of their beloved harbor metropolitan.
Yao aims to reframe old structures and abandoned buildings, having traveled across Taiwan to capture the quiet dignitary of such architecture that were once part of major industrial and economic operations.
Chen hopes to complete the narrative of lives affected by the devastating Typhoon Morakot in 2009, in which the strongest typhoon to ever hit the island irrevocably altered or ended the futures of so many individuals and communities.
"Lendemain Chagrin” is co-curated by French scholar Michel Frizot and Taiwanese academic Su Ying-long (蘇盈龍).
‘Lendemain Chagrin: Quatre photographes taïwanais'