To tie in with the COP21 climate change conference taking place in Paris in November-December 2015, the Espace Fondation EDF have put together a subtle yet powerful exhibition that explores what’s really at stake.
Standout pieces include Ange Leccia’s ‘La Mer’ (a video projection of rippling waterscapes on a giant screen) and Adrien Missika’s captivating video of a crater in a Turkmenistan desert, both of which emphasise the notions of ‘artist as observer’. Former scientist Hicham Berrada’s ‘Présage’ is also particularly thought-provoking: live chemical reactions in a glass tank evolve as the exhibit goes on, inciting visitors to question the relationship between the natural and the artificial (and as a consequence, man’s role in preserving the earth).
Instead of just hammering home the message that we’re all doomed, ‘Climats artificiels’ offers a fertile collection for stimulating discussion of some major moral issues.
TRANSLATION: HUW OLIVER