En dialogue avec Monet, les jardins fantomatiques de Sarah Moon à Rouen
Sarah Moon presents "D'après nature," a double exhibition at the Centre photographique Rouen Normandie and the pavillon du jardin des Plantes de Rouen, as part of the sixth edition of the Normandie Impressionniste festival. The festival marks the centenary of Claude Monet's death with 75 projects under the theme "Un possible jardin." Moon created new photographs during a residency in Normandy, capturing Monet's pond and the botanical garden of Vauville, alongside dreamlike works from the past 40 years, including large-format prints like Le Pavot (1997) and L'Avant-Dernière Pivoine (2011). Her images use close-ups, blur, and accidental effects to transform landscapes into ghostly, imaginary territories where leaves, petals, and bird wings resemble fossil imprints.
This exhibition matters because it reimagines the traditional garden genre through a contemporary, experimental photographic lens, challenging bucolic perfection and engaging with Impressionist legacies. By blurring boundaries between artifice and truth, life and death, Moon's work offers a poetic, memory-driven exploration of nature that resonates with the festival's centenary tribute to Monet. The show highlights how photography can evoke the intangible and the spectral, expanding the dialogue between historical art movements and modern visual practice.