Ashes and Snow

"Ashes and Snow" by Canadian artist Gregory Colbert is an installation of photographic artworks, films, and a novel in letters that travels in the Nomadic Museum, a temporary structure built exclusively to house the exhibition. The work explores the shared poetic sensibilities of human beings and animals. "Ashes and Snow" has traveled to Venice, New York, Santa Monica, Tokyo, and Mexico City. To date, "Ashes and Snow" has attracted more than 10 million visitors, making it the most attended exhibition by a living artist in history. [cite web | title = El Mañana: Acaba Museo Nómada su peregrinar (2008–) | url = http://www.elmanana.com.mx/notas.asp?id=54261] [cite web | title = The Art Newspaper: Attendance Figures| url =http://www.theartnewspaper.com/article.asp?id=6020]

Description

Each exhibition consists of more than fifty large-scale mixed media photographic artworks and three film installations. The photographic artworks measure approximately 3.5 by 2.5 meters (11.5 x 8.25 feet). Each one is created using an encaustic process on handmade Japanese paper. The films include one 60-minute full-length 35mm film and two short "haiku” films. None of the photographic or film images have been digitally collaged or superimposed.

The films are poetic narratives, rather than documentaries. The full-length feature "Ashes and Snow: The Film" was edited by two-time Oscar-winner Pietro Scalia. It is narrated by Laurence Fishburne (English version), [http://www.alma-latina.net/01actors/e/enrique_rocha.shtml Enrique Rocha] (Spanish Version), Ken Watanabe (Japanese version), and Jeanne Moreau (French version). Narrations are forthcoming in Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, Arabic, German, and Italian. Musical collaborators include Michael Brook, David Darling, Heiner Goebbels, Lisa Gerrard, Lukas Foss, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and Djivan Gasparyan.

The title "Ashes and Snow" refers to the literary component of the exhibition—a fictional account of a man who, over the course of a yearlong journey, composes 365 letters to his wife. Fragments of the letters comprise the narration in the films. "Ashes and Snow: A Novel in Letters" by Gregory Colbert was first published in 2004.

Since 1992, Gregory Colbert has launched more than 60 expeditions to locations including India, Burma, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Dominica, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tonga, Namibia, and Antarctica to film and photograph interactions between human beings and animals. Elephants, whales, manatees, sacred ibis, Antigone cranes, royal eagles, Gyr falcons, rhinoceros hornbills, cheetahs, leopards, African wild dogs, caracals, leopards, baboons, eland, meerkats, gibbons, orangutans, and saltwater crocodiles are among the animals that he has filmed and photographed. Human subjects include Burmese monks, trance dancers, San people, and other indigenous tribes from around the world. To date, Colbert has collaborated with over 130 species.

The public debut of "Ashes and Snow" took place in 2002 at the Arsenale in Venice. The show opened to critical and public acclaim. Alan Riding of the "New York Times" said of Gregory Colbert's work in Venice, "The earth-tone photographs are printed on Japanese handmade paper, yet the power of the images comes less from their formal beauty than from the way they envelop the viewer in their mood. They are accompanied by no captions, because it matters little how or when or where the photographs were taken. They are simply windows to a world in which silence and patience govern time." [cite web | title = New York Times review of Ashes and Snow, May 23, 2002, Dances With Whales (2002–) | url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0CE0D7103FF931A15757C0A9649C8B63&sec=&spon=&&scp=2&sq=ashes%20and%20snow&st=cse]

The Nomadic Museum

Colbert originally conceived the idea for a sustainable traveling museum in 1999. He envisioned a structure that could easily be assembled or recycled in each location and that would serve as the architectural component of the installation on its global journey.

The Arsenale inspired the architectural concepts of the Nomadic Museum, which debuted in New York in 2005. The first Nomadic Museum utilized shipping containers stacked in a checkerboard pattern to create the exterior and interior walls. The architecture of the Nomadic Museum continued to evolve as the exhibition traveled to Los Angeles in 2006 and Tokyo in 2007.

The most recent version of the Nomadic Museum was located on the Zócalo in Mexico City. Designed by Colombian architect Simón Vélez in collaboration with Gregory Colbert, it demonstrated sustainable practices and an innovative architectural approach through the use of guadua bamboo as the primary structural component. The first of its kind, the 5,130 square meters (55,218 square feet) Zócalo Nomadic Museum was the largest bamboo building ever built. [cite web | title = Abre la Secretaría de Cultura el Museo Nómada en el Zócalo de la Ciudad de México (2008–) | url = http://www.cultura.df.gob.mx/culturama/prensa/detalleNoticia/indexN.html?id=1010] [cite web | title = Vegetal steel: bamboo as eco-friendly building material (2008–) | url = http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/02/05/business/LA-FEA-FIN-Colombia-Bamboo-Building.php]

Like all elements of "Ashes and Snow," the Nomadic Museum will be redesigned and adapted to each new location.

"Ashes and Snow" at the Nomadic Museum is scheduled to open in Brazil in 2009. Additional venues are planned in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

Critical Acclaim

"Ashes and Snow" by Gregory Colbert has been covered by most of major news outlets in North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Africa, including CNN, CNN en Español, CNN International, BBC International, EuroNews, Televisa (Mexico), TV Azteca (Mexico), Televisión Española-TVE (Spain), ABC, NBC, CBS, A&E, RTVi (Russia), TV Globo (Brazil), Fuji TV (Japan), NHK (Japan), PBS, RAI TV (Italy), Fox News, CTV (Canada), CBC (Canada), CCTV (China), ZDF (Germany), IRI TV (Iran) and TBS (Japan).

*“A new master is born.”—"Photo" magazine, 2005 [cite web | title = Photo Magazine: Gregory Colbert La Révélation (Cover) (2005–) | url = http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk82/ASHESandSNOWnyc/Photo%20Magazine%202005/img082.jpg] [cite web | title = Photo Magazine: Gregory Colbert La Révélation (Full Article) (2005–) | url = http://s278.photobucket.com/albums/kk82/ASHESandSNOWnyc/Photo%20Magazine%202005/]

*"We (Mexicans) are about to discover something we have never seen, a temple where we can experience the light, the space, and the magic of silence... Once inside the museum you become part of it; and once you leave, a part of you stays behind." - Joaquín López-Doriga on "Noticieros Televisa", 2008 [cite web |title=YouTube Video clip of Colbert interview with Joaquín López-Doriga|url=http://www.youtube.com/ramiropuentes77]

*“His astonishing pictures—sepia and umber in tone . . . documented the whole caravan of beauteous creatures who had passed before his magic lens. . . . For all its apparent sobriety, this is an ecstatic space; as for the installation, it is Zen. . .It’s like a Rothko chapel writ large.”—"The Wall Street Journal", 2005 [cite web | title = Epiphanies in Sepia and Umber(2005–) | url =http://www.marioninstitute.org/matriarch/MultiPiecePage.asp_Q_PageID_E_69_A_PageName_E_TheInstituteNewsWSJReview]

*“The power of the images comes less from their formal beauty than from the way they envelop the viewer in their mood. . . .They are simply windows to a world in which silence and patience govern time.”—"New York Times" (2002) [cite web | title = New York Times review of Ashes and Snow, May 23, 2002, Dances With Whales (2002–) | url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0CE0D7103FF931A15757C0A9649C8B63&sec=&spon=&&scp=2&sq=ashes%20and%20snow&st=cse]

*“In these photographs . . . the animals and the people seem to move in a cosmic dance filled with rhythmic and visual beauty that breaks out of the mundane world of classifications, of ‘us’ and ‘them,’ and into the sublime.”—"Camera Arts", 2005 [cite web | title = Camera Arts Review (Cover) (2005–) | url = http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk82/ASHESandSNOWnyc/Camera%20Arts%202005/img108.jpg] [cite web | title = Camera Arts Review (Full Article)(2005–) | url = http://photobucket.com/ashes-and-snow_nyc-camera-arts]

*"Best of the Best" —"Vanity Fair", 2006 [cite web | title = Vanity Fair's Best of the Best January, 2006 (2006–) | url = http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f294/ashessnow/VanityFair001.jpg]

*"There is no clash of species in "Ashes and Snow"; it is a world in which man and animals peacefully co-exist, living in each other's dreams." -"Los Angeles Times Magazine", 2006 [cite web |title= Los Angeles Times Magazine|url= http://s49.photobucket.com/albums/f294/ashessnow/LATM/]

*"Tokyo is such an artificial space in which we who live here can gradually lose the sense that we still inhabit the natural world. When we come to the Nomadic Museum, however, we are reminded of the warm feelings man must have had while living with nature. The museum is a space where we can reconnect with who we really are." - "Asahi Shimbun" newspaper, 2007 [cite web |title= Asahi Shimbun newspaper|url=http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f294/ashessnow/Asahi_JPN.jpg]

*“A magical, mystical tour.” - "Life" magazine, 2005 [cite web |title=Life magazine|url=http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f294/ashessnow/Life.jpg]

*"In the middle of the Zocalo a bamboo museum is born. Its roots point towards the sky within it lies a secret that will take your breath away: the exhibition of "Ashes and Snow"." - "Reforma" newspaper, 2008 [cite web |title=Reforma newspaper|url=http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f294/ashessnow/reforma18demarzo.jpg]

*"Distinctive . . . monumental in every sense." - "Condé Nast Traveler", 2005 [cite web |title=Condé Nast Traveler|url=http://s49.photobucket.com/albums/f294/ashessnow/CondeNastTraveler/]

*"The photographs seduce through starkness and spirituality. . . . Timeless and exquisitely timely." - "Newsday", 2005 [cite web |title=Newsday|url=http://s49.photobucket.com/albums/f294/ashessnow/Newsday/]

*"The most arresting aspect of Gregory Colbert’s photographs . . . is their air of dreamlike calm. The serenity pervades the sepia-toned pictures." - "Smithsonian", 2005 [cite web |title=Smithsonian|url=http://s49.photobucket.com/albums/f294/ashessnow/Smithsonian/]

*"Colbert’s work feels timeless and sacred. It resonates with a luminous, essential wisdom speaking through the ages. . . . Colbert’s work operates in a parallel universe to ours, an earnest, refreshing, post-ironic world where pure wonder and awe still reside.” - "The Globe and Mail", 2002 [cite web |title=Globe and Mail article on "Ashes and Snow"|url=http://s49.photobucket.com/albums/f294/ashessnow/Globe%20and%20Mail/]

*"The season’s most original art exhibition . . . a show of striking photographs.” - "Town and Country", 2005 [cite web |title=Town and Country, "Peerless on the Pier"|url=http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f294/ashessnow/TownCountry-1.jpg]

*"An extraordinary exhibition." -"The Economist", 2006 [cite web |title=The Economist|url=http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f294/ashessnow/TheEconomist.jpg]

*“Fascinating photos of humans and animals...that reflect an astonishing harmony.”—"Stern", 2006 [cite web |title=Stern|url=http://s49.photobucket.com/albums/f294/ashessnow/Stern/]

*"The exhibition presents a marvelous vision that transcends time and place.” - "Goethe", 2007 [cite web |title=Goethe|url=http://s49.photobucket.com/albums/f294/ashessnow/Goethe/]

*"Ashes and Snow" is an expression of the poetic possibilities of a harmonious relationship between animals and man.” - "Newsweek", 2007 [cite web |title=Newsweek Japan|url=http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f294/ashessnow/NewsweekJapan001.jpg]

*"The Nomadic Museum restores the possibility of wonder to museums whose excesses of clarity and light have banished the shadows. The power of the show and the power of the building are so reciprocal that it is difficult to separate the dancer from the dance. [Colbert conditions] the senses of the visitors to facilitate their psychological entry into the space of the photographs, to deliver the message that man is not, and cannot be, separate from the nature within which he evolved. In these agnostic and cynical times, the building becomes a place to feel and even believe. “Ashes and Snow” is a show that is disarmingly, and grandly, simple." - "Modern Painter", 2005 [cite web |title=Modern Painter: 21st Century Bestiary|url=http://s49.photobucket.com/albums/f294/ashessnow/Modern%20Painter/]

*"Almost unknown more than two months ago, Gregory Colbert launched into the art world like a meteorite." - "L'Express", 2002 [cite web |title=L'Express: Mémoire d'éléphants|url=http://www.lexpress.fr/culture/photographie/m-eacute-moire-d-eacute-l-eacute-phants_485764.html]

*"The power of the images... is eternal and sacred." —"Architectural Digest", 2008. [cite web |title=Architectural Digest Mexico: March 2008|url=http://s49.photobucket.com/albums/f294/ashessnow/Architectural%20Digest/]

*"His work has an almost preternatural calm." - "New York Magazine", 2005. [cite web |title=New York Magazine: "Have Museum, Will Travel"|url=http://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/architecture/11077/]

*"Gregory Colbert...is for all the world a modern day Noah." - "The Villager", 2005. [cite web |title=The Villager: "New age Noah transforms a bestiary"|url=http://www.thevillager.com/villager_99/newagenoahtransforms.html]

*"The trajectory of Gregory Colbert is...surreal." - "El País" [cite web |title=: El País: "Calm magic of Nature"|url=http://www.elpais.com/articulo/portada/calma/magica/Naturaleza/elpepucul/20080119elpepspor_8/Tes]

*"There is no way to accurately translate the English word "bliss" into Italian. Yet it's this word that precisely explains the exhibition “Ashes and Snow”." - "La Repubblica", 2002. [cite web |title=: La Rupubblica: "The Beatitude of the Elephants"|url=http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/2002/04/05/la-beatitudine-degli-elefanti.html]

*"There is a calm flow of time that is intrinsic to nature but lost from modern society."- "Asahi Shimbun" newspaper, 2007 [cite web |title= Asahi Shimbun newspaper|url=http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f294/ashessnow/Asahi_JPN.jpg]

External links

* [http://www.ashesandsnow.com/en/home.php Ashes and Snow.com]
* www.imdb.com [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0493393/]
* Flying Elephants Presents I [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR7yzPLXNAM]
* Flying Elephants Presents II [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Dde5b_q2Hk&feature=related]
* Feather to Fire [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSX444hQ5Vo&feature=related]

External links

* [http://www.ashesandsnow.com/en/home.php Ashes and Snow.com]
* www.imdb.com [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0493393/]
* Flying Elephants Presents I [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR7yzPLXNAM]
* Flying Elephants Presents II [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Dde5b_q2Hk&feature=related]
* Feather to Fire [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSX444hQ5Vo&feature=related]

References