Inspired by the botanical greenhouses of the 19th century, the installation NFT pH<7 logique (2019) is installed in the hall of Villa Merkel.

This hyperconnected multisensory ecosystem combines plants and technological tools (soundtrack, light sources, fog machine…).

The whole is controlled by an algorithm that makes the “climate” in real time by setting off its components randomly from climate data collected on Twitter.

The outer rooms accommodate new works, that continue the story started by the main installation.

Strange soft and phosphorescent forms have transformed the material of industrial waste.

The film Drop out (2020), filmed in New Zealand, takes us into kaleidoscopic worlds where states of crises and permanent mystery reign.

A weak aquarium that sunk under a video screen takes in a plant with visions that scroll over the screen in a sequence of abstract forms, implying other intelligences, not human, but botanic.

A series of luminous artefacts that seem to communicate between themselves using light signals through spaces bathed in a blue light with ultraviolet effects.

Long phosphorescent worms lie here and there on objects that have shed their skins.

Suspended from the ceiling, a final machine, Quantum (2020), seems to be controlled by plants that control the illuminated breathing and troubling sound modulations.

For this final workshop in Thailand, the designers base their work around indigo. Ester Manas and Wisharawhish Akarasantisook chose a silk textile made in the Surin province and played on the Blue jean aspect to redesign work clothes. They are unisex and suit all sizes.

Sandrine Rozier is one of the designers in France recognised for her knowledge of indigo and her great mastery of the baths that reveal all their shades. With Namfon Laïstrooglai she also worked around the material which, when cut out then re-assembled, gives rise to this bag with an idea of lightness and softness

Within the framework of this workshop in Chiang Mai, it was above all a question of carrying out tests, combinations, questioning materials and taking the artisans the designers worked with away from their reflexes. When Violette Vigneron teamed up with Coth Studio they experimented on new possibilities with bronze. The lightness and grace of these chandeliers is the surprising result.

The tandem became involved in the life of this community which brings together more than 30 families of artisans who have been producing turned wood for more than 100 years. Combining wood with indigo was a first. Each time the result is unique, the indigo adhering to the wood in a different way depending on its thickness, original colour, age…

All the designers involved in this first workshop organised in Bangkok had the idea of working on materials that are reminiscent of the streets of Bangkok, that are so colourful and lively. Thai-Tie and Love seat are made in rattan, a material used a lot in Thailand. The motifs recall local traditional ornaments. Christian Ghion chose a simple design so that Yothaka can easily produce the two designs.

At Chiang Mai, the Thai and French designers worked side by side on personal designs. Teerapoj Teeropaas who worked, among others, with Lauriane Beaunier and Alexandre Dubreuil at Prempracha, convey the slow pace of rural life through this series. The chiselled texture is reminiscent of bamboo, speciality of the other factory that also hosted this group of designers during this workshop.

Patcharada Inplang is an architect who is interested in artisanal production methods and local materials. She took the opportunity of this workshop to work with ceramic, which she is not so familiar with. By concentrating on the moulding technique, which is one of Prempracha’s great crafts, Patcharada wanted to highlight raw details of the edges from the moulding process. The story of this factory is therefore what she showcases here in her final pieces.

Established in 2001, the Kayu Manis furniture company specialised in producing bathroom furniture in 2007. By working in this company, Pascaline de Glo de Besses discovered another production model: teak wood is worked mainly by hand, assembly being done according to woodworking rules. The major advantage of this exchange for the company has been to analyse the current trend for bathroom furniture which, in Europe, are all light. Materials such as terrazzo are also highly appreciated. By working teak as slats, as in constructing boat decks, Pascaline achieved a lighter finish that just by working with the mass.

Within the framework of this workshop, the Hanoia company hosted Guillaume Delvigne, Pierre Charrié and Marie-Aurore Sticker-Metral. They were able to discover the lacquer savoir-faire that the Hanoia company masters perfectly. Having carte blanche for the purely creative aspect, they started the project before their stay which enabled the Hanoia team to produce a first series of raw prototypes. Workshop visits, work meetings, exchanges with artisans and technicians, work on plans, choice of colours, reflection on material effects... This workshop gave the 3 designers the opportunity to have a quick view of all the stages of the lacquering process.

The classic development process was accelerated so that each designer could achieve technically finished projects in the time available. It was an exploit, even more so because the process of working lacquer is especially long, the prototypes were therefore finished off after the stay. This very intense workshop pushed them to shake up their usual work habits, make fast choices and refine their propositions rapidly. Each designer proposed five projects, their development was carried out collectively and shared with the Hanoia teams.

« We met Ousmane Kà in 2016 when we were preparingour planned « Wilwildu»exhibitionat the Grand Café – Saint-Nazaire Art Centre. With his workshop in Guédiawaye on the outskirts of Dakar, he created the canvas for our « North/South loungers».In February 2019, he is hosting us as an for a week’s learning and together we are planning new woven collaborations, in particular this woven « ocean liner».

« We told Ousmane the story of the Ancerville liner, which left the Saint-Nazaire shipyards in 1961 to connect Marseille and Dakar. It will be repainted and renamed Minghua after it was taken over by the People's Republic of China in 1973 to serve its cooperation projects in Tanzania. »

« We have used the medium of weaving to understand and share this network bearing witness to the history of globalisation. The issues of interdependence, the movement of people, forms and techniques, goods and raw materials, and the inequity of our economies are our strands of research. »

« With weaving as the only common language, Sébastiao Yé, assistant to Ousmane Kà, teaches us the weaver’s knot and the threading of the comb, patiently guiding our gestures. »

We programme the ocean liner pattern with the method learned from Ousmane Kà. The anamorphosis created by the preparatory rods reminds us of a drawing spotted in a militant anti-colonial magazine in the 1970s.

This skilful artisanal technique is common to other weaver cultures such as those in China and Lyon silk weavers, and it prepared the advent of the Jacquard mechanisms. In West Africa, it is used by weavers from Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau.

« The Ancerville liner appeared for the first time on our weave in Nantes. We sent a photo to Ousmane Kà via WhatsApp. »

« The Ancerville liner appeared for the first time on Ousmane Kà’s loom in Dakar. He made an image for us first of all, followed by a few alterations of the pattern and its series. »

« This new pattern, resulting from our collaboration with Ousmane Kà, represents the master weaver handing down his knowledge. It combines with a recognised Mandjaque pattern which, we were told, protects against theft and impersonation. We put our three names in the cloth to commemorate this moment, as is often done on traditional loincloths. »

« With the Coronavirus Covid-19 health crisis, the idea of a Corona pattern was born because the Mandjaque loincloth patterns protect the wearers against evil. The collaboration continues. The pattern was designed by Patrick Bernier for the Tëss weaver’s workshop in Saint-Louis-du-Senegal, directed by Maï Diop. The weaving was carried out by Assane Diop and her assistant Antoine Mendy in April 2020. »

Aganta Kairos is part of the generic piece Middle of Nowhere by Laurent Mulot, a long-distance work set in six continents. In all his work, he collaborates with inhabitants he meets in the territories he travels to. In Aganta Kairos, a celebration marked by a plaque, the site of the work is inaugurated and two witnesses are inducted to be the invisible, the conservators of the work and the poetic gesture.

Francisco Heriniaina and « Mr President », head of Efoetsy (« the navel »), a village of 200 inhabitants from the Mahafaly ethnic group, zebu farmers.

The Mahafaly have a close relationship with constellations, the ocean, the deceased and newborns.

Julius Nielson, hunter-fisherman and guide, and Gerd Ignatuussen, Inuit shaman, are the witnesses for Aganta Kairos in front of the Sermilik Fjord glacier. Here in the Arctic Ocean, the goddess Sedna governs underwater life.

Pauline Harris, an astrophysicist, and Pere Tanui, both Maori and members of the Onuku community which celebrates the sea, the land and those who look up to the sky, welcomed Laurent Mulot into their clan after initiating him and being witnesses to Aganta Kairos.

Yves Leber is the grandson of the former owner of Porquerolles Island, the land closest to the ANTARES deep-sea neutrino detector. Thierry Stolarczyk is an astrophysicist at the Institut de recherche fondamentale sur les lois de l’univers (Institute of Research into the Fundamental Laws of the Universe, CEA Saclay), scientific guide and advisor for Aganta Kairos. These are the Aganta Kairos witnesses for the Atlantic Ocean.

The two witnesses for the Antarctic Ocean are Stanislas Devorsine and Benoît Hébert, both former captains of the Astrolabe. Benoît Hébert was also involved in the construction of the 6th Centre for Ghost Contemporary Art in Antarctica.

Zhan-Ayrs Dzhilkibaev, Chief Scientist for the Baikal Neutrino Telescope and Vitaly Schur, engineer and the only permanent resident of the research centre, inaugurated the 6th Aganta Kairos plaque in the 2nd « garden » overlooking Lake Baikal. For Vitaly, the lake is a person.

Lake Baikal is considered an ocean in formation. To detect the passage of neutrinos, physicists plunge optical modules deep into the lake when it is frozen. After this exercise, there is nothing left of the experience – which has also become a ghost.

Valentin, a shaman on the island of Olkhon, considered to be the cradle of world shamanism, talks with Lake Baikal, its flora and fauna like so many living beings. Alongside the driver of his « jicouly », an iconic Soviet Lada, he celebrates Aganta Kairos in an incantation to the cosmos.

While science, shamanism and mythology do not proceed in the same way, they do not provide the same answers to questions about our origins and those of the universe that contains us, but the questions are sometimes connected. Tawhirimatea, the inconsolable Maori god of the original separation between earth and sky, celebrates the inseparable bond between these two entities; Aganta Kairos celebrates those who look at the earth, the sky and the sea…

Born in 1977 in Madagascar, Joel Andrianomearisoa lives and works in Antananarivo and Paris. He finds his inspiration in space and time, in Madagascar and around the world. Each trip is an emotional experience, from which he returns with fabrics: he then cuts, knots, tears, superimposes, weaves and assembles them until they form an interplay of materials and stories.

Josep Grau-Garriga, who passed away in 2011, was born in 1929 in Sant Cugat del Vallès, near Barcelona. He was the great master of Spanish tapestry in the 1970s. 

The grandson of an anarchist hairdresser, and raised in a family of republican peasants, he watched in horror as a teenager when Francoism triumphed in the 1930s. His work would enduringly be marked by this experience.

Born in France in 1978, Laure Prouvost studied in London at Central Saint Martins and later Goldsmiths College. Winner of the prestigious Turner Prize in 2013, she now lives and works in London, Antwerp and a caravan in the Croatian desert. She represented France at the Venice’s 58th International Contemporary Art Biennial, in 2019.

The power of Laure Prouvost's work lies in her ability to explore universal and topical issues, and to express them in new artistic forms, in fictional videos and sensual immersive installations. 

Lily Hibberd's practice revolves around the question of time, memory and desire, explored using a contemporary approach. A conceptual artist and writer, Lily Hibberd is Australian and lives in Paris. 

In 2019, Lily Hibberd took a photo here of the Sydney Observatory's transit room, based on the astronomical results of Henry Chamberlain Russell (1879-1881).

Here, Lily Hibberd has created a digital collage from two old photographs of the Sydney Observatory. Taken by Waterford on 6 February 1941, the photograph on the left shows Mary Allen and Ethel Wilcocks measuring astrographic plates. The one on the right, H. A. Lenehan at the transit circle, in 1907-1908 (anonymous).

A Franco-Algerian artist born in 1978, Mohamed Bourouissa endeavours to enable exchange and sharing with local communities. He is fascinated by urban utopias and the history of representation, and synthesises recurring questions: the appropriation of territories, power and transgression. 

Born in 1992 in Châtellerault, Tarek Lakhrissi is a poet, visual artist and performer. He developed a multifaceted artistic practice ranging from film to poetry, images, workshops and performances. 

Juggling French, Arabic and English - thanks to which he gained access to the American queer culture - Tarek Lakhrissi's work revolves around two main threads: language and fiction.

“In Mumbai, we created an ephemeral work with coloured powder, made from dyed sand and salt, called Rangoli. ”

"On the roof of this little-used car park, at 35°C, we painted, in a blue reminiscent of the colour of the "azulejos" on the streets of Goa, plastic bags, bottles by the sea and other waste floating on the swimsuit of a giant sleeping lady."

“After a day of Rangoli, we are covered in pigment and as the last colour we used was black, we look like miners. Indians like to celebrate colours and throw dyed powders around, ending up covered in pigment.”

“The powder drawing we made in Dharavi was not in itself a curiosity for the locals, except that it was much bigger than those made at the Rangoli festival. According to the police at the nearby police station, it was even the largest in India!”

"The lady fell asleep on the roof of a car park, between the river dotted with floating casinos and the future motorway which will take her to the airport in a matter of minutes. She will wake up when the cars stop and the sand has returned. In the meantime, she dreams.”

“This sleeping lady's bathing cap is inspired by 1970s models, when Goa was a paradise for hippies and environmental carelessness with regard to new materials, such as plastic. Her earring is reminiscent of the red bindi Indian women paint on her foreheads.”

“We travelled through the city and its railway tracks on crowded trains, open doors, our hair in the wind, with our friend Alkemy, a local graffiti artist, until we found the perfect spot to create graffiti. We love the uncontrollable and free energy of the graffiti movement. We couldn't not do some lettering in Mumbai!”

“This aerial photo was taken a few minutes before the local kids came out to play and started erasing the powder drawing. The laughing character will be tickled for three days before disappearing almost completely, worn away by footballs, bikes, motorbikes and passers-by. Sad to see it disappear, locals have invited us to paint it again on our next visit.”

“We like to play with the erasure of our works. We have blown up painted walls in quarries for Blast, filmed the erasure of a sleeping giant by cleaners in Saint-Étienne, observed the slow disappearance of a drawing made on the turf of the Montargis aerodrome, watched the sea take a couple of lovers drawn with seaweed on a beach in Chile…”

“They're there, they're laughing, they're rummaging, they're shouting, they're playing. This design is a tribute, in Goa’s slum, to all the children we met between Mumbai and Goa. They were always there when we were painting, curious about what we were going to do and always encouraging us.”

In February 2019, Son Ar Mein travelled to Bangladesh for a creative residency and a series of three concerts in Dhaka and Chittagong, with the choir from the Asian University for Women, South Asia's first all-female university. Through French baroque and Renaissance music and other European masterpieces, they all seek to promote the education and emancipation of young women from Asia and the Middle East.

A symbol of the traditional circus, the wheel of death is renowned for the horror and admiration it elicits from the public. Based on these emotions, Galapiat Cirque wanted to reverse the trend with their "little" wheel of death, and open up many more possibilities. They thus make this vehicle a new game partner, both on the ground and in the water. Part of the residency for the creation of this project has taken place in Finland in 2019 and 2020.

The Sitala associations have been working for 15 years on innovative artistic cooperation between France and Burkina Faso. In January 2019, Sitala Kounou, composed of musicians from France and Burkina Faso, created a creative residence as well as a time for exchanges and training for the professions of sound and light technicians. 

This travelling sound sculpture feeds on the interest it receives and the stories it tells: visitors listen to the stories submitted by those who came before them, and must in turn leave a message in the only structure with a microphone and represented by an ear. The work was presented at The Terminal Kyoto in October 2019 as part of the White Night.

The technique developed by Émilie Pédron during her residency at Villa Kujoyama in 2016 involves harvesting natural clay that provides great richness in colours, textures, materials etc. A technique that she learned to complete in Kyoto in November 2019 by training in the traditional technique of repairing with lacquer (urushi) to carry out alterations.

In March 2019, Jean-Luc Thomas travelled to Brazil to record “Oficina Itinerante”, based on his multimedia show “Oficina”. Designed as a travel diary, the album, which will be released on 28 February 2020, pays tribute to the places and people the artist has met over the past 20 years.

This piece by Xavier Maurel combines text and dance with the soundscape of the Ez3kiel group. Designed to be performed in the forest, Echo ou la parole est un miroir muet is re-created in situ with a new troupe of non-professional dancers in each territory where it is presented, notably in Brazzaville and Kinshasa in December 2019.

Walk Man in Seoul is the Korean version of a soundtrack concept developed in France by the Théâtre de l’Arpenteur. A creation designed by Hervé Lelardoux assisted by Ji-In Gook, which immerses the spectator in the city of Seoul and the memory of Seoulites. This project was presented in October 2019 during the Seoul Street Art Festival.

After a residency in Australia in the summer of 2019, Samir Mougas made a set of eight glazed sandstone wall sculptures that combined, in an animist dimension, mouldings of hubcaps and sausages. The residency allowed him to develop several enamel recipes to work on the glossy texture of his objects.