Argentinian born photographer Hugo Passarello, who is based in Paris, has exhibited his creative work on writer Julio Cortázar (1914 – 2004) in the gallery at the Lycée Français de New York.
Luisa Valenzuela, au café Le Chien qui fume. Photo by Hugo Passarello.
David Cerrone, who heads the Spanish department at the Lycée Français de New York, wanted Hugo Passarello to introduce his work on novelist Cortázar to LFNY high school students. The LFNY Cultural Center was happy to take on the project, which encompassed an exhibition and a student conference in Spanish.
Passarello’s idea was inspiring enough: he contacted Parisian readers of the famous Argentinian novelist through social media and asked them to choose one of their favorite passages from Hopscotch, a novel written in Paris in the sixties (Cortázar immigrated to France in 1951) . They agreed to be photographed in Paris in the place described in a passage from the novel. The exhibition invites viewers to take their time to study the beautiful black and white photos that give a glimpse of what Paris might have looked like in 1963 when the novel was published. Each photo includes extensive captions and the respective passage from the novel, with comments from the reader featured in each photo.
The exhibition “Unexpected Photo Essay on Cortázar” currently on view at the Lycée.
“I had planned to work with him last year with my students in France, but the project fell through. I was interested in inviting him to the LFNY, as we studied Cortázar’s novel in Spanish class,” said David Cerrone.
While Hugo Passarello’s was at the school, seniors in Spanish went to Central Park (photo) and to work in the spirit of Passarello. Their inspiration was not Cortázar, but Spanish novelist Eduardo Galeano, who wrote about Barcelona. The assignment? You arrive as an extra-terrestrial creature in Central Park. What do you photograph that surprises you? The result of their work was presented in the auditorium on Wednesday morning and reviewed by Passarello.
Back to Cortazar. The exhibit is pure poetry, and it sits at the crossroads of literature, architecture and photography. Passarello’s images convey intense emotions of the novel. Words and photos travel together in harmony. The simple display – captions on white paper hung with twine – takes us back in time. The exhibit was reviewed in the New York Times, prompting a few readers to come and see it. Visits were allowed after 5:30pm on Friday. Among them, who are all fans of Cortázar, was Eduardo Almirantearena, Deputy Consul General of Argentina in New York
Read the review of the exhibit on the New York Times’ Lens blog.
About the Author :
Pascale Richard joined the Lycée as director of the Cultural Center in 2011, where she aims to bring the best of French and American cultures through conferences, concerts, films and various events. In the fall of 2012, she launched the school’s Artist-in-Residence program. Pascale was previously Vice President of External Affairs at the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF). Her background is in journalism and writing with a focus on lifestyle and fashion. She is a graduate of Sciences-po and holds a master’s in journalism from New York University.