/ Lightscape

The moment when light and shadow are captured awakens the soul’s perception. Caroline Halley des Fontaines uses photography as a medium to embark on a meditative journey exploring the spiritual connection between humanity and nature—one of mutual dependence.

ALIEN MODE, as an extended curatorial and collection platform of the ALIEN ART CENTRE, connects contemporary art, objects, and lifestyle aesthetics, restoring the essence of collecting to experience, understanding, and companionship. This exhibition, Lightscape, curated by ALIEN MODE in collaboration with sunsun-museum, brings artworks beyond the museum and integrates them into everyday life, exploring a dialogue between collection and living spaces.

Lightscape originates from an art project that Caroline Halley des Fontaines has been developing since 2015. She is a photographer who has recently gained significant international attention, receiving a project grant from the Palais de Tokyo in Paris and being selected by PEN magazine in Japan as one of the “21st-century representative photographers,” alongside artists such as JR, Andreas Gursky, and Thomas Ruff. Over the past twenty-plus years, she has travelled to remote, sparsely inhabited regions of the world—places minimally connected to technology, such as Tibet, Ladakh, Navajo lands, Easter Island, and the Galápagos Islands—studying ancient cultures and rituals and embedding within her work a sense of spiritual connection between humanity and nature.

Originally, she studied law and human rights at Sorbonne University in Paris but ultimately chose to pursue art, using photography as a way to sense the intersections of civilization and nature. Her work extends beyond visual beauty, carrying anthropological, philosophical, and spiritual dimensions. Early in her career, Caroline Halley des Fontaines focused on figurative black-and-white photography. Her shift to color abstraction was prompted by a personal turning point; having once felt a sense of loss toward the world, she encountered a vision of sea and sky merging in Brittany in 2015—a moment of renewed joy and grace that opened a new horizon in her practice. Since then, she has traveled to northern seas and ice lakes, capturing the chromatic energies of water, light, and the horizon. This series was first presented at ALIEN Art Centre in 2021–2022 with support from the Palais de Tokyo. In 2025, through this exhibition, the works enter a lived environment for the first time—inviting viewers to enjoy a quiet coffee or read a book alongside the artworks, departing from the traditional museum experience of viewing from a distance.

In Lightscape, Caroline Halley des Fontaines focuses on capturing the subtle shifts of light on the ocean—light shaped by time, weather, and the changing angle of the horizon. She photographs not landscapes themselves but the forms that light creates within them. Her images exude profound stillness and purity, as if revealing the “breath of light.” These colors are not the result of post-production; they emerge through high-end cameras, long lenses, extended exposures, and patient observation, distilling the true light and color witnessed on site. Her images open a window not merely onto a view but into a meditative journey. Her work invites associations with James Turrell’s exploration of subconscious light, revealing the inner landscape of the mind. Radiating outward like a mandala, her light and color evoke a state of flow in which viewers experience a dialogue with existence, sensing energy and the exchange with nature—a journey that enriches the inner self.