Alliances végétales (Plant Alliances)
Considering the plant world from a trans-species perspective, to question our anthropocentrism and imagine new alliances.
Basic Transmutation
Aniara Rodado and Jean-Marc Chomaz, in partnership with Marco Suarez-Cifuentes and Natalia Belalcázar Gamboa | 2019-2020
In “Basic Transmutation – Alien/Migration,” choreographer Aniara Rodado and artist-physicist Jean-Marc Chomaz create a participatory space for immersive human-plant interaction. This “alchemist’s factory” that distills Eucalyptus globulus—one of the most planted trees on the planet and often accused of being the tree of capitalism—is an invitation to “plantamorphize” so that we can engage in other forms of sensory interaction.
Télescope d’intérieur (Indoor Telescope)
Jean-Marc Chomaz, Anouk Daguin and Marco Suarez-Cifuentes | 2020
In a “reversed” reference to Eduardo Kac’s space work “Inner Telescope” filmed by Virgile Novarina, the “Indoor Telescope” travels back in time to tell the story of everyday life by delving into the spectrum of house plants. In the manner of the Henry Draper catalog of 1918, the first to list the spectra of all visible stars up to the ninth magnitude, the “Indoor Telescope” catalog presents the spectra of the constellation of plant memories recorded from residents of the Terre Nègre retirement home in Bordeaux, in September 2020.
Espace vert (Green Space)
Anouk Daguin | 2020
A space lit entirely with green light corresponds to the absorption spectrum of chlorophyll A. Here, the roles are reversed: it is no longer a space designed for the visitor but for the preservation of plants and their representation. Green light is used at the entrance to the herbarium conservation rooms of the Museum of Natural History in Paris to attract insects and avoid contamination. Here, it has another use. It helps to preserve chlorophyll pigment ink: observation of the herbarium and the botanical plates under the green light at 550 nm forces the eye to distinguish tone-on-tone drawings, and hence the visitor to adapt to a universe designed to preserve a memorial trace of plants.
