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Voilah! 2015: Enter the world of The Little Prince

SINGAPORE — Fans of The Little Prince are in for a treat at this year’s Voilah! French festival, which boasts two exhibitions on Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s famous book. Around 10 sculptures, as well as rare manuscripts, illustrations and books are being showcased at Fullerton Hotel for The Little Prince Art Collection, while a visually impaired-friendly exhibition of sculptures is also on display at Alliance Francaise for The Little Prince In The Dark.

SINGAPORE — Fans of The Little Prince are in for a treat at this year’s Voilah! French festival, which boasts two exhibitions on Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s famous book. Around 10 sculptures, as well as rare manuscripts, illustrations and books are being showcased at Fullerton Hotel for The Little Prince Art Collection, while a visually impaired-friendly exhibition of sculptures is also on display at Alliance Francaise for The Little Prince In The Dark.

The sculptures were crafted by Bangkok-based French artist Arnaud Nazare-Aga and his wife Adeline, in collaboration with the Antoine de Saint-Exupery Youth Foundation. The exhibition at Fullerton Hotel comprises three-dimensional renditions of the famous characters and images in the book, which Saint-Exupery also illustrated, such as the iconic elephant-swallowing boa constrictor, the mysterious prince and the different inhabitants of the planets he visited. Among the rare illustrations is a version of the baobab tree that had been rejected by Saint-Exupery’s publisher in New York when it was published in 1943.

For the exhibition at Alliance Francaise, Nazare-Aga and his wife created 13 all-white, tactile sculptures painted with fluorescent lacquer, which will be situated within a dark space. With the help of UV LED lights, the works will glow. There is also be an audio element to the exhibition.

While it was technically complicated to render the beloved two-dimensional imagery into sculptures, Nazare-Aga said it helped that the characters were so vivid. “If you get into the story, every character is alive and you imagine them alive,” he said, adding that they hope to extend the series and make more sculptures.

He did admit he was initially hesitant to take on the project, because of the pressure and responsibility of creating sculptures based on one of the most iconic works in 20th century French literature — until he discoevered a link between his family and Saint-Exupery. In the middle of the project that began in 2013, Nazare-Aga had visited his father in France, who revealed to him that his grandfather had been a pilot — and had flown with the famous author.

Saint-Exupery’s “other” side — as that of a pioneer in civil aviation — is also explored in an accompanying exhibition at Fullerton Hotel titled Airmail Exhibition: Saint-Exupery And Latecoere. Prior to publishing The Little Prince, Saint-Exupery had already been known for a number of things. Not only was he a writer of repute (his second novel Night Flight was turned into a Hollywood movie starring Clark Gable), he was also well-known as one of the pilots under the Latecoere airmail company in the early 1920s. As one of the pioneering high-flyers, he would travel across the world delivering letters. “They went across mountains, deserts, oceans to carry mail. They were considered crazy at that time,” said Olivier d’Agay, general delegate of the Antoine de Saint-Exupery Youth Foundation and a great-nephew of the writer.

He added that Saint-Exupery’s trips and his literary works are closely linked. The writer would often illustrate the letters he wrote during his flights. With early civil aviation being not as safe as it is today, crash landings were not uncommon. Some of these experiences would find their way into his books, including The Little Prince, which is from the perspective of an air pilot who crashes in the desert. Saint-Exupery once crashed in Libya where “he was lost in the desert and was delirious”, shared d’Agay, who admitted he had only discovered his great-uncle’s most popular work when he was already in his late teens. “The Little Prince was hard to understand. I discovered it was a book for adults and not for kids. It was the last book of his that I discovered but it was the most powerful.”

Indeed, The Little Prince is one of the most-read - and translated - books in literature and popular culture (an animated Hollywood film by Kung Fu Panda co-director Mark Osborne will be screened at this month’s Cannes Film Festival before a wide theatrical release in July) and there’s a good reason why: For d’Agay, it’s because it contains the “common values of the global village”, whether it’s about the environment, childhood education, peace — anyone can get into it.

 

The Little Prince Art Collection and Airmail Exhibition: Saint-Exupery And Latecoere runs until May 31 at Fullerton Hotel. Free admission.

The Little Prince In The Dark runs until June 20 at Alliance Francaise, 1 Sarkies Road. Free admission.

For more information on Voilah! 2015, visit http://www.voilah.sg.

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