PHOTO: Lily Boukouvala, Mont Saint Michel–Monemvasia
In the heart of Normandy, where the Atlantic Ocean meets the sky, a photographic exhibition dares to bridge two places separated by thousands of kilometres. Titled “Mont Saint-Michel – Μονεμβασιά” (Monemvasia), this collection by photographer Lily Boukouvala is not merely a series of images, but a journey into the shared soul of two iconic rocky islands.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Lily Boukouvala’s Archive
Born in Greece in 1981, Lily Boukouvala is a professional photographer who studied in Athens and is now based in Paris. Her artistic vision transcends geographical borders. Through her lens, she seeks the truth hidden in nature, transforming landscapes into fields of metaphysical inquiry. Her work has been featured in festivals and exhibitions in Athens, Paris, and beyond, and this exhibition represents the culmination of years of research into the essence of place.
The exhibition is built on a striking observation: Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy and Monemvasia in the Peloponnese — though one is “bathed by the Atlantic and the other by the Aegean Sea” — share a remarkably parallel historical trajectory from the late Middle Ages to the Renaissance.
Both are natural fortresses: inaccessible, inhospitable rocks that once offered refuge in a violently unstable world. Over time, their inhabitants transformed these daunting sites into havens, and later into centres of culture and power. From the early Byzantine era, when Monemvasia became one of the most powerful bishoprics in the Peloponnese, to the height of Mont Saint-Michel as one of Christendom’s most important pilgrimage destinations, their stories are tales of resilience, isolation, and gradual metamorphosis into places of exceptional cultural and symbolic density.
Yet Boukouvala does not aim for a simple historical comparison. Adopting a poetic, allusive gaze, she seeks to illuminate “the mysterious cause of their timeless radiance”. To achieve this, she weaves into her narrative an invocation of the surrealist genius of René Magritte.
Just as the great painter stripped objects of their literal meaning, the photographer liberates these landscapes from linear history. The result is a series of images that do not merely document monuments, but redefine them “as fields of dream, memory, and metaphysical search”. The viewer no longer sees simply Mont Saint-Michel or Monemvasia; they encounter the very idea of a place standing defiantly between sea and sky — an archetypal expression of the human desire for protection and transcendence.
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Photo: Lily Boukouvala, Mont Saint-Michel, © & Courtesy the artist
Info: Salle municipale de la Petite école, Mont Saint-Michel, Normandy France, Duration: 20-26/4/2026, Days & Hours: Daily 11:00-19:00
