Paris, the "city of romance," attracts more than 100 million tourists every year. The Eiffel Tower glittering at night, Montmartre hill as a sanctuary for lovers, and the Notre-Dame Cathedral and the Louvre Museum with their long history captivate visitors from around the world. A special exhibition is drawing attention by looking beyond the city's glamorous image to reveal the true face of Paris.
Sungkok Art Museum in Jongno-gu, Seoul, is holding the "Paris Unseen" photo exhibition to commemorate the 140th anniversary of Korea-France diplomatic relations. A total of 51 artists from France and other countries, including three Korean artists, participated in the exhibition, capturing Paris through their own perspectives. The show was co-curated with Alain Sayag, former head of the photography department at the Centre Pompidou.
The first encounter with the works feels unfamiliar. The old, dark and sometimes dirty scenes in the photographs raise doubts about whether this is the real Paris. The bewilderment of confronting hidden truths behind the city's glamour, where memories of the past intersect with present experiences, is also the purpose of this exhibition. "The artists looked into and recorded Paris with their own perspectives and techniques," curator Alain Sayag said. "Through this exhibition, visitors will be able to meet the true face of Paris."
The signature work is British documentary photographer Martin Parr's "Paris, France," which shows a pile of Eiffel Tower model souvenirs in various colors. He viewed Paris through a scene filled with clichés of the tourism industry and consumer culture. Anne-Lise Seusse's "Rue Jean-Henri Fabre, Saint-Ouen," which captures a Paris street piled with garbage, and Véronique Ellena's "Quai de Valmy," which depicts the homeless who exist throughout downtown Paris but are rarely seen during the day, reveal the city's hidden face intact.
Grégoire Eloy's "Notre-Dame Cathedral Fire" and Martin Dorgeval's "Witnesses" capture the scene of the Notre-Dame Cathedral fire that broke out on April 15, 2019, and the anxious expressions of people watching it unfold.
Korean artists gazed at Paris with yet another perspective. Koo Bohn-chang, a leading Korean photographer, presented a series photographing chasse-roues, structures once installed to protect entrance gates used by horse-drawn carriages. Kim Mi-hyun lyrically recorded Parisian nights using the slow shutter speed of Polaroid, while Sung Ji-yeon made empty subway trains and public telephone booths the protagonists of her work.
This year also marks the 200th anniversary of the invention of photography. In 1826, Frenchman Joseph Nicéphore Niépce succeeded in producing the world's first modern photographic print by engraving an image on a metal plate. The exhibition showcases attempts to expand the boundaries of the photographic medium, ranging from 19th-century traditional printing techniques to contemporary experimental photography, video and installation. By treating photography as an expanded artistic language beyond simple visual records, the show presents the multidimensional perspectives of artists contemplating the city.
"This exhibition is meaningful not simply in introducing Paris but in expanding the very way we view a city," an official from Sungkok Art Museum said. "We hope visitors will discover their own 'invisible city' through their personal experiences and memories." The exhibition runs through July 26.
