Darren Almond: Civil Dawn @ Giverny

»Except for painting and gardening, I m useless«, Claude Monet wrote to a friend, preferring a life in Giverny, 3 km away from Vernon on the Seine downstream from Paris. He went there in 1883, initially remodelled the home and garden complex and made an ornamental garden out of Clos Normand. Later, in 1893, he bought a large area across the street, now the Chemin du Roy, where he could create his famous water lily pond and the Japanese bridge, which would be the key motif in his work from 1897 until his death on 5 December 1926. The street is partly the reason why there was no other view of the bridge for Monet, and it is said that he had his gardeners wiped the dust of the lilies every day, until he finally had the road asphalted at his own expense. Darren Almond, born in 1971, now lives in London and works mostly on elaborate photographs taken under a full moon. He has progressed through his participation in 1997 at the legendary exhibition »Sensation« via the Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2003 and not least by his nomination in 2005 for the Turner Price to become one of the outstanding British contemporary artists. After his exhibition at the Villa Merkel and the resulting cassette »Nocturne«, this publication, which contains new photographs of Monet s garden, emphasises the sculptural floral motifs in Darren Almond s photographic work. Also, the individual flower photographs can be separated from the book block, which is protected by a translucent plastic cover, in which a small signed picture of a polaroid with the famous lily pond has been inserted.