FRThe living, from the cosmos
to the Earth
Since 2009, the Brain Space Laboratory explores practical and theoretical research connecting space, time, body and brain, by bringing together artists and researchers in neurosciences, astrophysics, biology, geology, art history and philosophy. For the cycle entitled Towards a Cosmomorphic World, launched in november 2016, the Laboratory is expanding its field of exploration to the organic connections uniting humanity to the cosmos, looking for alternative conceptions to anthropocentrism. How can creation and research contribute today to this change in paradigm and establish a new way of looking at the world ? Could a common responsibility, shared by artists, scientists and intellectuals, pave the way for alternative actions ? For Station 11, the Brain Space Laboratory is invited to the Center Pompidou-Metz for the exhibition Infinite Garden. From Giverny to the Amazonia. In approaching new practices and conceptions (immersion, participation, symbiosis, compositions, becoming and metamorphoses), participants and guests of the laboratory try to find the answer to the following question: What happens when the cosmos is no longer seen from Earth, but when the earth is crossed itself by the cosmos ?
Works on study
Exhibition Infinite Garden. From Giverny to Amazonia.
Curators : Emma Lavigne and Hélène Meisel
Exobiology and genetics of life
František Kupka, Cosmic Spring I, 1913-1914
Oil on canvas, 115 x 125 cm
Prague, Narodni Museum
Micro and macroscopic visions, sprouting and bubbling of matter.
Karl Sims, Panspermia, 1990
Betacam NTSC
Colour and sound video
2’ 8’’
Demonstration and testing of the theory of Panspermia.
Philippe Parreno, Continuously Habitable Zones aka C.H.Z., 2011
Video installation
Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel and Courtesy Galerie Esther Schipper
Living conditions of exoplanet.
Giovanni Anselmo, Trecento milioni di ani, 1969
Anthracite and eclectic light, 30 x 50 x 13 cm
Épinal, Musée Départemental d’Art ancien et Contemporain
In reverse of the classifications of the living, vegetal metamorphoses
Confusion of reigns
Yves Tanguy, Le jardin sombre, 1928
Oil on canvas, 91,4 x 72 cm
Düsseldorf, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen
Max Ernst, Fleurs de coquillages, 1929
Oil on canvas, 129 × 129 cm
Evolution and mutation
Goethe, Urpflanze, in the 1790’s
Frank Percy Smith’s films in the 1920’s and 1930’s
Timelapse and micro-cinematography
Émile Gallé, Décor avec orchidée et trois insectes, Undated
Gouache, graphite pencil, golden paper, 29,7 × 44,2 cm
Nancy, Musée de l’École de Nancy
Study of "monstrosities" in orchids, plasticity of the plant world.
Ecosystems
Pierre Huyghe, Nympheas Transplant, 2014
Installation
Zurich, Galerie Hauser & Wirth
Giverny’s alchimy.
Tetsumi Kudo, Le jardin greffé, 1971
Installation, 270 x 430 x 527 cm
Paris, Centre Pompidou
Post-nuclear, post-human mutant nature.
Claire Pentecost, Soil-erg, 2012
Installation, variable dimensions
Basel, dOCUMENTA 13
A new economy based on the ground.
In immersion
Claude Monet, Les Nymphéas, 1914-1926
Oil on canvas
Paris, Musée de l’Orangerie
Jud Yalkut, Kusama’s Self-Obliteration,1968
16 mm film
23’
"Obliterating nature", blending in with the environment.
Wolfgang Tillmans, Neutral Density B, 2009
Inkjet printing on paper, 240 x 605 cm
Seville, Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo
Light waves equalized by a filter on image. Equivalence of phenomena, participation of each event as one.
Jean-Luc Vilmouth, Jungle Science, 1998
Sound, lightening, smoke
Hans Haacke, Directed Growth, 1970-1972
The work is activated by the atmosphere, the climate, the context of the exhibition.
Becoming a plant
Carsten Höller, Giant Triple Mushroom Amanita muscaria / Helvella crispa / Boletus badius, 2010
Sculpture
Paris, Centre Pompidou
Michel François, L. à la datura, 1998
Poster, Print on paper, 180 x 120 cm
Paris, Centre Pompidou
Cosmomorphic Rituals
João Maria Gusmao et Pedro Paiva, Fruit Polyhedron, 2009
35 mm film
2’42’’
Paris, Centre Pompidou
James Whitney, Lapis, 1966
Short film
10’
The cosmic principles are replayed in hypnotic variations of mandala.
Joseph Beuys, Plantation Project, 1980
Praslin, Seychelles
Ernesto Neto, Flower Crystal Power, 2014
Plywood, fabric, polyurethane foam, semiprecious stones, pulleys, spices
Height: 421.6 cm; diameter: 741.7 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York
The question of ritual among Huni Kuni.
Rituals of the earth
Kazuo Shiraga, Challenging Mud, 1955
Photographic test
Amagasaki, Amagasaki Cultural Center
Claudio Parmiggiani, Terra, 1989
Photographic test, 30 x 30 cm
Lyon, macLYON
Teresa Murak, Rzezba dla Ziemi, Ubbeboda Center (Sweden), 1974
Gelatin-silver proof, 14 × 23,3 cm
Courtesy Campagne Première, Berlin
Guests
Abderrazak El Albani
Doctor of Geology and sedimentary geochemistry, professor at Institut de chimie des milieux et matériaux, University of Poitiers, directs a group on primitive organic material and paleontological environments
Emanuele Coccia
Philosopher, lecturer at l’École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), author of La vie des plantes, une métaphysique du mélange
Michel Viso
Exobiologist at the Observatoire de l’Espace, the art-science laboratory of the Centre national d’études spatiales (CNES)
Participants
Denis Cerclet
Antropologist, lecturer at Université Lumière Lyon 2
Pierre Montebello
Philosopher, modern and contemporary philosophy professor at University of Toulouse, author of Métaphysiques cosmomorphes, la fin du monde humain
Cyrille Noirjean
Director of URDLA (International center estampe & book), psychoanalyst (member of the International Lacanian Association)
Arnauld Pierre
Art historian, professor at Université Paris IV-Sorbonne Jean-Louis Poitevin Doctor of philosophy, writer and art critic
Alexandre Wajnberg
Scientist journalist at the RTBF (Journal parlé de Radio Une, Brussels)
And the artists Clarissa Baumann, Benjamin Blaquart, FRAME (Alys Demeure, Jérôme Grivel, Héloïse Lauraire, Sandra Lorenzi, Stéphanie Raimondi), Célia Gondol, Lola Gonzàlez, Linda Sanchez, Vahan Soghomonian, Mengzhi Zheng, Florian Varennes
Related exhibition
Infinite Garden. From Giverny to Amazonia.
Centre Pompidou – Metz, 03/18/17 – 08/28/2017
Study day
Friday, June 30th 2017, from 2:00 p.m to 5:30 p.m, at the Center Pompidou-Metz Studio.
Talks between participants and guests about a selection of works from the exhibition. In the presence of the curators Emma Lavigne and Hélène Meisel.
Station 11 summary
Video recordings of the study day
Sound recordings of the study day (mp3)
→ presentation of Station 11 and participants
→ about Karl Sims’s film, Panspermia, 1990 (with Emanuele Coccia, Abderrazak El Albani and Michel Viso)
→ about Philippe Parreno’s film, C.H.Z. (Continuously Habitable Zone), 2011 with three guests
→ about metamorphosis issues
→ about vegetable metamorphosis (with Pierre Montebello, Michel Viso, Abderrazak El Albani and Emanuele Coccia)
→ about inhabited zone (Parreno's film)
→ about ecosystems issues
→ about immersion issues (with Abderrazak El Albani and Michel Viso)
→ about ecosystems issues (Hélène Meisel speech)
Lecture / Talks
Friday, June 30th 2017, from 6:30 p.m to 8:00 p.m, at the Auditorium Wendel Center Pompidou-Metz.
With Pierre Montebello, Abderrazak El Albani, Emanuele Coccia, Michel Viso and Nathalie Ergino.
