Grand Palais, ChangeNOW
Installation, 5 meters (height)
Curators Ronan de la Croix and Chantal Steegmuller
2020
ESOHPROMATÉM, the French word for Metamorphosis backwards is a new word for the future of our planet, that tells the story of a reverse transformation of the books back to their natural source and thus invites us to metamorphosis back to our natural source. The installation created entirely of books and paper elicits diversity and change within nature and humanity. It evokes the Fukushima tragedy and ecological solutions nature provides: sunflowers absorb pollutants present in earth showing the force of nature and the hope it provides. Rendered at human scale, they confront us with reality yet show us nature’s incredible strength. The colored paper reveals the dommage man has done to the ocean around the tree representing the earth that stands tall, morphed by pollution yet shows all the knowledge of the world and of humanity’s connection with nature.
The public was invited to reflect on their place within nature’s story by entering the trunk of the tree and discovering nature’s secret. Here they wrote a promise to nature that was then folded into a cocoon. Each cocoon was placed in the tree with other promises in hopes that as a community we can metamorphose and become a reality.
Below is the Documentary film showing the process, research and public interactions and reactions to the work.
Film realised by Tomasz Namerla
Below is the
Visitors could enter into the tree to discover the beauty, strength and delicate qualities of nature through the Monarch butterfly hidden within the golden center. The Monarch, that makes the longest migration in the world is the symbol of hope to metamorphosis back to our natural source.
The tree shows its interior as a warning- 12 colored rings talk about the 12 years that the United Nations have warned us we have left before the dommage we have done to the earth is irreversible. These rings are a symbol of the drastic change that needs to be made.
The promises to nature from the public that slowly turned into cocoons over the course of the installation.
