Rencontres végétales

Presentation

Francis HALLÉ

France

Parrains - Invités

Born in 1938, Francis Hallé is a biologist, a botanist and professor at several universities. His interest and wonder for the ecology of tropical forests and the architecture of their trees led him, on all continents, to meet and study them. It is also his unconditional practice of drawing that directed his research towards the humid tropics. In 1985, and for 30 years, he directed the missions of "le radeau des cimes" and the scientific aspects of research on tropical forest canopies. Between 1960 and 2004, he published dozens of scientific works and he is the author of numerous books translated into several languages. He founded the "Francis Hallé Association for Primeval Forests" in 2019 and brings with it the realization of his dream of seeing the rebirth in Western Europe of this ecological summit represented by a forest that has not been degraded by man and managed in integral free evolution : maximum carbon accumulation, biological diversity, soil fertility and beauty.

Exposition

2022 1 | COSEC

When we meet someone, we try to get to know them, to discover and understand them. Francis Hallé sits down and draws. A seed, a leaf, a flower, a tree ... He tirelessly draws on his paper the depiction of a being, a moment, a story. He tells us about life and beauty. Plainly. An encounter. Two othernesses who do not know each other and who will converse, question each other, sometimes seduce each other to perhaps invent a common ground, or prefer not to see each other again. Francis Hallé continues to marvel at all these encounters throughout his life. While he sees in his 50,000 drawings the unalterable memories of each of his encounters, he invites us to look at the presence of the fragile beauty of living things and to marvel in our turn. This exhibition brings together some of these encounters between a man and a plant.