"Rather than a homage to Surrealism, Achalme's photographs invite us to experience the surreal that still exists within reality today." — Teona Gogichaishvili, Curator, 2026
Lumigraphies — Rêver Cadaqués presents the photographic work of Valmont Achalme for the first time, realised through a technique the artist developed more than a decade ago. By allowing light to enter a digital sensor through a tiny aperture — what he calls "smartphone goes pinhole" — Achalme produces images defined by unusual depth, soft contours and a painterly atmosphere. Each photograph becomes a kind of digital unique, shaped by time, light and movement. The exhibition is presented within Kolga Tbilisi Photo's 25th-anniversary edition, marking the artist's first introduction to a Tbilisi audience.
The series is rooted in Cadaqués, the Catalan coastal village whose rugged rocks, Mediterranean horizons and shifting luminosity profoundly shaped Salvador Dalí's surrealist imagination. For Achalme, the place is also deeply personal: he spent his childhood here while his father ran one of the village's first clubs — an establishment frequented by Dalí, who once painted the family hotel's sign. Decades later, the artist returns with his camera and rediscovers the landscape through a new visual vocabulary.
Achalme's Lumigraphies transform familiar places into quiet, dreamlike scenes. Iconic motifs and hidden corners of Cadaqués appear suspended in time, some echoing the very landscapes that inspired Dalí, yet unfolding through an entirely contemporary sensibility. Rather than offering a homage to Surrealism, the works invite the viewer to experience the surreal that still exists within reality today. Alongside the photographs, the exhibition presents a selection of short experimental video works — calm, contemplative sequences that move between stillness and motion, extending the poetic atmosphere of the images.
The series is rooted in Cadaqués, the Catalan coastal village whose rugged rocks, Mediterranean horizons and shifting luminosity profoundly shaped Salvador Dalí's surrealist imagination. For Achalme, the place is also deeply personal: he spent his childhood here while his father ran one of the village's first clubs — an establishment frequented by Dalí, who once painted the family hotel's sign. Decades later, the artist returns with his camera and rediscovers the landscape through a new visual vocabulary.
Achalme's Lumigraphies transform familiar places into quiet, dreamlike scenes. Iconic motifs and hidden corners of Cadaqués appear suspended in time, some echoing the very landscapes that inspired Dalí, yet unfolding through an entirely contemporary sensibility. Rather than offering a homage to Surrealism, the works invite the viewer to experience the surreal that still exists within reality today. Alongside the photographs, the exhibition presents a selection of short experimental video works — calm, contemplative sequences that move between stillness and motion, extending the poetic atmosphere of the images.