Europe News Desk!! Speaking to IANS, French Ambassador to India Emmanuel Lenain said that defense cooperation with India has been deepening. Indo-French relations will go a long way. We will further strengthen ties based on mutual trust and at various levels. He said, during the first wave of Covid, we saw that India was exporting essential medicines to France to fight the pandemic. The second wave saw France playing a major role in transporting oxygen to India. The ambassador says the next level is to reach out to more people. Emphasizing that this is a people-to-people relationship, not just at the government level. Lennon says more Indian students are going to study in France and there has been an increase in student exchanges. Trade has also been very strong, we have a lot of French companies and investors. We will see many more in the future. Culture is important and we are seeing more artist exchanges between the two countries. It is a very diverse relationship.
Recently, Lenain celebrated World Heritage Day in Chandigarh by showcasing 16 photographs capturing iconic buildings in Chandigarh and Ahmedabad for her photographic exhibition The Tenderness of Concrete. Like Lenin says, some people like to paint with bright colors, while others like to draw.. I like black and white colors and that’s what attracted me to this project because it’s about shapes is more. Lennon says that there is no one better than Chandigarh in terms of architects. That said, in modern, contemporary architecture, the material is solid, some see it as imposing, I think its texture is very soft, and the light playing with it creates a sensuality.
India has been a great field for modernist architecture, says Lennon. Nowhere, except perhaps in Brasilia with Oscar Niemeyer, has an architect been given complete freedom to build an entire city from scratch. This is precisely why I wanted to dedicate an exhibition solely to these buildings. I don’t want to follow the documentary style, but a personal point of view. A photograph of architecture is not necessarily a topographical survey. It can be an expression of an emotion. I am less interested in buildings taken than in architectural details, which take on a poetic dimension when taken out of their context. Ready to take the exhibition to smaller towns, he says that every time he visits a small town in India, there is a lot to see. I try to meet the students as well, he said, and I am always impressed by their enthusiasm which motivates them to learn more.
–IANS
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