AGUA

We speak about the soul of violins. Will we speak one day of the soul of walls …The soul of the walls of Milène Guermont?

Like everyone, I often “talk to a brick wall”, regrettably! But never has a wall spoken to me.

Milène told me to touch it, so I brushed it and it began shouting!

A cry for help like these spirit prisoners of materiality? No, finally it was a rustle, a confidence that came from dozens of microprocessors inserted into the concrete. Sounds of waves from inside a shell? A breath of fresh air into trees? Droplets of water which speak under your fingers?
It is the sound of a cloud, says the artist.

The wall or the table? Because there is also a table which we caress before covering it wisely. Provocative, erotic: hide this breast … Familiar tune!

[...] Touch, close your eyes, breathe: you are in another galaxy. Planets look at you.
Inanimate objects? Milène Guermont gives life to the most thankless material, the one that we would never imagine to be able to sharpen all our senses: concrete!

Annette Ardisson
Editor in chief of RadioFrance, 2011

The water deforms the wall

AGUA (6*20 ft. by 1.2 in. thick, blue high-performance fiber-concrete) is a sculpture imagined for the headquarters of the company GA whose walls and ceilings contain tubes of water to regulate its thermal qualities.

The water gives “life” and movement to these walls; AGUA exemplifies this with its plastic shape and its sounds. As the visitor enters the building, he perceives an excrescence, as if some water accumulated and deformed the wall. Then, he discovers more movements “in” the wall, until it becomes like a veil, a fine sheet transforming to escape from the architecture.

By its sensual forms, AGUA attracts the hand. If a visitor touches one of the bumps, AGUA emits, according to his or her magnetic field, a sound of water (rain, waterfall, lapping, wave, bubble, streaming).

The first breath of this Polysensual Concrete sculpture just installed on the jobsite is here.

Clicking on this picture, new ones will appear.

The wall escapes from the architecture

Water accumulates into the walls until it deforms them.
MINI AGUA illustrates these fluid movements with its plastic shape and sonic disposition.

The sensitive zone of this Polysensual Concrete sheet moves into it.
If, by brushing against it, you manage to catch it, MINI AGUA will emit a sound of water according to your magnetic field.

This fine unpredictable sheet seems to warp.
MINI AGUA escapes from the architecture and defies comprehension.

MINI AGUA is born in 2015 for the exhibition "archi-sculpture" at Villa Datris-Foundation for Sculpture (FR). Then, this sculpture becomes the artwork of the French Pavilion of the International Exhibition Astana 2017 (KAZ), more info here. In 2018, it is planned to be displayed at Centre Pompidou (FR) for the show "The powers of emotion".

Villa Datris-Foundation for Sculpture.

Artworks by André Bloc, Jean Dubuffet, Ann Veronica Janssens, Le Corbusier and Joan Miro appear on the images above (click on this pic).

Click on this pic to see several images of the International Exhibition.

Portraits of Louis Vicat, Le Corbusier and Milène Guermont appear on the pictures above.

The French Pavilion of the last International Exhibition: VICAT - LE CORBUSIER - GUERMONT

Economizing the material to the extreme and putting the human being at the heart of the process, MINI AGUA, an interactive concrete creation (8.2 x 3.3 feet by only 1 inch thick), is selected to be the artwork shown at the French Pavilion of the International Exhibition ASTANA 2017 (10 June - 10 September 2017), whose overall theme is "Energy of the Future". To create "a breath" in this huge show, a Parisian style apartment is created with the portraits of the inventor of artificial cement, Louis Vicat; the architect, Le Corbusier; and the artist, Milène Guermont. You can also discover MINI AGUA, a thin sculpture made of Polysensual Concrete that emits sounds if you touch it.

600.000 people visited the French Pavilion.

Pictures & Press Release here. Events linked to the International Exhibition here. Follow the steps on instagram here.
Scenography by Via Design.