Connecting to Nature - Kinetic Forest by Céleste Boursier- Mougenot

 https://www.designboom.com/art/celeste-boursier-mougenot-venice-art-biennale-french-pavilion-05-06-2015/

céleste boursier-mougenot plants a kinetic forest at the venice art biennale
all images © laurent lecat

 céleste boursier-mougenot transforms the french pavilion at the venice art biennale 2015 from a vast, vaulted space to a kinetic forested oasis intended for reflection and retreat. the french artist presents ‘rêvolutions’ as an experimental ecosystem that reveals the constantly evolving state of nature through sound, light and motion.

curated by emma lavigne, director of the centre-pompidou-metz, the exhibition transports viewers to an otherworldly oasis of vegetation, where trees have been liberated from their original place of habitation and their roots revealed outside the pavilion and on the gallery floor. a low-voltage electrical current makes the trees move around inside the pavilion, producing an electric rustling sound environment, where visitors can find a place to relax on the semicircle of surrounding steps.

‘while rekindling the aspiration to the marvellous and the sense of wonder of italian mannerist gardens, céleste boursier-mougenot lets his underlying political thrust filter through’ lavigne says. ‘his intention here is to commandeer systems used for controlling living beings and their movements and compose a poetic work offering humanity living spaces marked by liberty and unconventional beauty.’