Since its beginnings, écho 119 has been committed to bringing the work of Japanese women photographers to the forefront by highlighting their unique and sensitive perspectives. The gallery is unveiling its new space with a solo exhibition of Rinko Kawauchi, which coincides with the publication of her book M/E (Delpire).
Rinko Kawauchi captures the evanescence of the day-to-day with a vivid gentleness. Her work, infused with poetry and delicacy, invites us to explore the beauty of the banal with the wonder of someone discovering the world, and to become aware of the invisible link that exists between all things and all beings. The exhibition, which brings together three of her series, allows visitors to immerse themselves fully in her unique world.
Kawauchi’s latest series, made in 2024, is being shown for the first time in Europe. Starting from a desire to offer a thought to the victims of current conflicts, Kawauchi photographed flowers in black and white. Then, with watercolour, she painted dashes of colour, containing, beneath the seemingly hopeless layer of war, the prayer of a future appeasement.
Here and Now echoes the poems of Shuntaro Tanikawa. Small insects feeding on leaves, the depth of night, the sensation of the last rays of sunlight that signal the end of a day in the park: Kawauchi captures living things in all their complex simplicity.
Finally, the M/E series – whose two letters (an acronym for “Mother Earth”) also form the word “me” starts from a (re) birth: as a woman, as an artist too, after an experience in the depths of a volcano visited in Iceland in 2019, that was experienced as a return to a mother’s womb.
Shadow, light, water and breath infiltrate and spring from the smallest corners of her photographs, reflecting the immutable impermanence of living things. Ultimately, it is the power of life that is celebrated in Rinko Kawauchi’s work: a message of hope that looks resolutely to the future.
Rinko Kawauchi
March 27 – May 10, 2025
Galerie Écho 119
1 rue des Minimes
75003 Paris
www.galerieecho119.com
