“This was not the first time that I have worked with Hughes Dubois, who is truly endowed with a photographic eye. Under the spell of the moon, and its light, which is so favourable to seeing Borobudur’s artistic magnificence, he and Caroline Leloup embarked on a long artistic journey. It was the honour of our team at the Guimet, the French National Museum of Asian Art, to help them sort through this gigantic book of stone and the forest of images by identifying the more important episodes in the stories. The crazy idea to capture Borobudur’s reliefs without daylight was a game of patience, fortitude, tenacity and experimentation. In their ‘darkroom’, the omnipresent stains, lichens and damaged areas are replaced with subtle, smooth forms and details revealing Borobudur’s splendour as we have never seen before. May they be thanked.“
Sophie Makariou, president, National Museum of Asian Arts – Guimet, Paris
The exhibition offers a unique night-time full moon experience to discover the site of Borobudur, the largest Buddhist temple in the world.
The exhibition room is plunged into darkness to find the feeling of the night.
The tour begins with photographs of the bas-reliefs from the first gallery, which tell the main stages of Siddhartha's life on the path of enlightenment to become the Buddha. It continues with the photographs of the reliefs from the 2nd, 3rd and 4th galleries, which show scenes of life and teachings of the Buddha.
On the ground, the visitor follows the path of stones that was photographed on the temple.
The soundscape of the exhibition includes the sounds of the night on the site, punctuated by the singing of the muezzin, the calls of the nocturnal birds, and the sound of the wind sweeping the palm trees of the surrounding jungle.
Visitors will be transported onto Borobudur temple, discovering the characters that come to life under the light effects and feeling the stone of the monument become real through the photographs of Caroline & Hughes Dubois.
Exhibition
With Borobudur, under the full moon, the carvings will be accessible to the public through the medium of photography.
A unique experience
For the first time ever, Borobudur was photographed under the night’s full moon, highlighting in detail the extraordinary relief imagery.
The relief carvings were photographed in their actual size at 450 millions pixels per photo, highlighting details.
The photographs of the reliefs, exposed in life size format with such quality gives visitors the feeling of discovering Borobudur as if being there.
Inkjet printing on Dibond of 3mm with a thin black aluminium frame and a hanging rail:
Module 1: 108 photographs in real size (275 linear meters)
Module 2: 63 photographs in real size (150 linear meters)
Module 3: 48 photographs in half format (75 linear meters)
Print on Hahnemuhle Fine Art Baryta 325gr, stick on aluminium of 2 mm; with a hanging rail:
Module 4: 108 photographs at size 1/3 (110 linear meters)
Module 5: 63 photographs at size 1/3 (40 linear meters)
Specific format on demand
Over 2.700 Buddhist relief carvings cover the walls of Borobudur. A selection of 63 of them was made by the Guimet Museum’s scientific team in order to understand the purpose of the teachings of Borobudur. This first selection was supplemented with the photographer’s selection made according to aesthetic criteria and to the quality of conservation of relief. A total of 108 photographs were chosen, which is a Buddhist symbolic number.The exhibition can be presented with different modules as described below reflecting the type of exhibition space and printing options.
