Singaporeans were in luck between May to Mid June this year when 2 exhibits related to on of Antonie de Saint-Exupéry’s famous 20^th century French literature- The Little Prince, was on display at both Fullerton Hotel and at the Alliance française de Singapour as part of the French Festival Singapore, Voilah! 2015 Festival- an annual cultural festival which this year marks 50 years of diplomatic relations between Singapore and France and also to pay tribute to the author Antoine de Saint-Exupery. Both exhibits were curated and created by Bangkok based French visual artist, ARNAUD NAZARE-AGA and his wife Adeline, who collaborated with the Antoine de Saint-Exupery Youth Foundation. It was not an easy feat to render 2D imagery into 3D sculptures for sure.

For me the story of The Little Prince was hard to comprehend. I had for many years ago first gotten my hands on the book from the library and re-read it number of times but found it hard to understand what the author was trying to convey. As I get older I had tried to get hold of the book hopping to grasp the idea behind the story. Though it’s still not easy to fully comprehend the author’s sense of state when writing the plot, I do now understand certain values it was trying to convey – values of the universe in general. What say you?

Part 1 of the exhibit The Little Prince Art Collection, was held at the Fullerton Hotel and featured 14 hand-painted sculptures come alive from scenes in the book. These colorful and vibrant sculptures were displayed alongside manuscripts and extracts of the story. Arnaud wanted to evoke the emotions of people when they visit the exhibit and put themselves inside the book and indeed did evoke some sense of emotion of us. Especially loved the very pretty sculptures and seeing them in 3D I guess makes any Little Prince fans happy and glee. The lovely sculptures make good photography props too! Though not a huge exhibit but it was really entertaining and felt good to be part of the story.

Breathtakingly gorgeous.
Box and the sheep. It was really exciting ( well for me) to see extracts of the illustrations come alive.





The Businessman.

The Geograph.

The Lamplighter.
...which delightfully actually lights up at intervals!

and when not lighted.

 The Drunkard.

The Conceited Man,

Don’t you just feel like a child in wonderland again looking at this sculptures? It was really a treat and happy moment for me. 

On the other side of Fullerton was another part of the exhibition: Airmail Exhibition: Saint-Exupery,  which showcased the other side of Saint-Exupéry’s- he as a pilot and how The Little Prince story came about alongside letters, manuscripts, photos and books.

Before that, here's Fullerton's iconic postman mascot.

A story write up.

Can you spot Saint-Exupéry?
 He's actually the tallest one in the center of the picture.


More handwritten scripts from the author himself.

This exhibition at Fullerton was held till 31 May last month, 2015. Hope you enjoyed the visuals I have posted here should you have missed the exhibit. :)

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Part 2 of the fun saw us heading to the Alliance française de Singapou, along Sarkies Road. First time there ever and was surprised it was just within walking distances from Newton MRT Station.

The exhibit at Alliance was totally different from the colorful world at Fullerton. 13 all-white sculptures painted with fluorescent lacquer, glowed in the dark when shined with the UV LED. The sculptures portrayed were similar to those in Fullerton but it was a totally revitalized sensory and visual experience really, to see them in darkness. Some of them also had audio commentaries of The Little Prince plot along with it.

Though small in scale,  these sculptures were lovingly and painstakingly created by ARNAUD and his wife with lots of efforts in placed.  It was fun and engaging for the visitors who have flocked down to witness the sculptures come alive, a first in Singapore I believe.