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JOSIANE DIAS, EXHIBITION "THE FLOATING WORLD"
“The Floating World” by photographer Josiane Dias
For five years, the photographer from Curitiba returned to the same place with a new look to photograph the flowers that came off the trees and dived into the water mirror of the New York Botanical Garden, in The Bronx, New York (USA).
More than 100 types of flowers were registered in thousands of clicks, 10 of which make up the careful selection displayed at Design Désir. The exhibition is unprecedented. Only two photos from the series were featured in group exhibitions, in 2018, at the Rosso Cinabro gallery and the Elsa Morante library, in Rome, Italy.
Infinite cycle
The collection of floating flowers was inspired by Japanese Ukiyo-e culture, a style of woodcut and painting, which predominated in Japan during the Edo period (1603-1868). In the words of Josiane Dias, this series represents the transitory and ephemeral nature of life, as well as the realm of worldly pleasures.
The term “ukiyo", in Japanese Buddhism, also represents the endless cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth. The flowers and leaves portrayed in this series go through a process of transformation, between life and death, culmination, detachment and renewal.
The flowers floating in the water were completing a cycle. They germinated, grew, matured, detached from the tree, fell into the water tank, floated, began to decompose and gave way to new flowers that also completed their cycle.
Josiane Dias lived for a period in Japan and was enchanted by Japanese culture, which values beauty and accepts the ephemerality of life.
For Josiane Dias, these flowers and leaves represent the individual with their personal and unique trajectory, experiencing the end or transformation of a cycle. They portray a changing and ever-moving life, the passage of time and the process of maturation.
“My photography wants to take the viewer out of everyday life and then return them to everyday life with a new look. I want my photography to be a portal”, says Josiane Dias about the collection.
Josiane Dias
Brazilian photographer Josiane Dias (1966) was born and raised in cold Curitiba, immersed in the world of arts and books. Currently, she lives and works between São Paulo and Brasília. Since 1993, when she left her hometown, she has lived in Geneva, Tokyo, New York and Tel Aviv. Living in different countries and cultures has influenced her photography on several levels.
Her work is inspired by the urban and natural landscape, but not in a literal sense. She looks for the unnoticed and the unexpected detail of these landscapes, for something ephemeral, poetic.
Josiane Dias studied at the International Center of Photography (ICP) and the National Academy School, both schools in New York.
Her work has been presented in several group exhibitions in New York, including the National Academy Museum, Soho Photo Gallery, and the United Nations headquarters, among others. She has also participated in group exhibitions in Geneva, Venice, Rome, Tel Aviv and Nagoya.
She had 4 solo exhibitions, the first at the Brazilian Consulate Gallery, in New York (2015), the second at the Jaffa Theather Gallery, in Tel Aviv (2017), the third at the espace_L Gallery, in Geneva (2020) and the fourth at Karla Osorio Gallery (2022), in Brasília. She has also participated in international art fairs such as SCOPE Miami, ARTEXPO and The Affordable Art Fair in New York.
Her work is included in private collections in the United States, Brazil, Israel and Switzerland.