A door opens onto a long hallway flooded with light, and pilgrims of the ordinary hover between two realms, heaven and earth. Made in Toledo, as part of the celebrations marking the 400th anniversary of El Greco’s death, this fresco unfolds moments of grace. In her photographic practice, Flore-Aël Surun is interested in political, social, and cultural peace activists. To each subject its own form.
The path from darkness towards light evokes religious narrative painting as well as the idea of tunnel as passage. It translates universality, different life stages, and levels of personal growth. Faithful to El Greco’s paintings, the chiaroscuro reflects our core questions and the darkness that enfolds us and encloses our inner light.
“Par la grâce” (“Through Grace”) is like that little girl, an angel of providence, who closes the long file moving towards a fragile inner world infused with spirituality.
Flore-Aël Surun
She was born in 1975 in Neuilly-sur-Seine.
Flore-Aël Surun’s work originates in the tender secret that binds beings to one another. Her photographs play with shadow and light in order to intensify our feelings. The temptation of peace, the rebellion, magic and angels inhabit her work and intertwine or collide in close proximity.
1997 First coverage in the lives of street children in Bucharest.
2001 Joop Swart Masterclass of World Press Photo foundation for « Female to Male ».
2002 Exhibition of « Sur-Vie Sous » in part of Chroniques nomades festival, Honfleur.
2004 She joins Tendance Floue.
2006 Exhibition of « FTM-MTF » in part of group exhibition « L’Amour comment ça va ? » at Maison de la Villette, Paris.
2008 Exhibition of « Chemin de Traverse » RER Luxembourg station in Paris.
2011 Publication of « La Famille Chagnon » BNP Paribas de la philanthropie Award.
2014 Exhibition of « Par la Grâce » Toledo in Spain. Group exhibition « ToledoContemporanea » galerie Ivory Press with El Greco foundation.
