TIDE MATRIX
Refining the material as a skin or forcing it into random forms, her work evokes emotion in that from which it should be absent. Therefore the concrete becomes a kind of memory of sounds, tactile sensations, images, capable of reacting to the stimulus of spectators’ bodies, and in turn inspiring their own associations and memories.
It awakens the memory of the body, stimulates the mind, and plays on our synesthetic abilities. Here are the “correspondances” of Baudelaire: if this rustling, quivering concrete can cause me to dream of the sea, it is because I remember the hard, wet smash of water which then withdraws, taking with it the sand from the beach.
Our collective sensitivity is memorial and spiritual; memory is a sensitive organ, and that's what interests Milène Guermont.
Émilie Bouvard
Art Historian and Curator at Picasso Museum of Paris, 2012
The tide carries you away
We sit down in front of a table to eat twice a day, and so goes the rhythm of the tide.
Between two meals, I would like to have a more sensory and tactile experience with a table, with the TIDE MATRIX table. For this to happen, we simply slide the glass top (metaphor for the sea) over the concrete section (metaphor for the shore).
By touching this part which is made of Polysensual Concrete, we activate the sound of the ocean.
The various soundscapes available were recorded in Normandy, my native land (so my geographical matrix): Mont-Saint-Michel, Chausey, Granville...
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BARREL
A barrel escapes
As a messenger bottle in the sea, BARREL retains within its memory the different seas where it sailed.
Touching BARREL provokes visual and acoustical evocations of the sea.
This activates waves of light synchronized with rhythms of sound. BARREL lives thanks to sensors, speakers and optical fibers that are embedded in concrete.
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THE ARK OF MONET
Water as an engine
Monet made a studio on a boat to get closer to the water to seize its reflections and create its characteristic aplats of color of Impressionism. This boat made him travel, literally as well as figuratively. THE ARK OF MONET translates the process of creation with the water as "the engine"; illustrated by metaphor: a raw block whose shape slowly evolves from the action of the water, becomes the fine boat made of Polysensual Concrete.
THE ARK OF MONET, artwork made of Polysensual Concrete, received a distinction by the festival Impressionism Normandy and was bought by Le Havre. In June 2013, it was installed in the City Hall of Le Havre, made by Auguste Perret (belonging to the World Heritage list of UNESCO).
Then THE ARK OF MONET was shown in the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (created recently by Phine & René Dottelonde). Now, this artwork is hidden in an industrial architecture from the 19th century.
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MUR NUEES
From the sea till the sky au ciel
At first sight, the place is empty. But, by advancing, a singular wall appears.
This wall is neither a barrier nor a border, but an invitation to travel. This intimate journey paradoxically takes the visitor to a very distant universe: the world of clouds.
Its harshness of surface catches the eye. It is irregular, plural, intriguing. The visitor still approaches and the desire increases … An irresistible desire to touch, to feel, to find! So, he brushes it. And the wall reacts. It expresses itself: thanks to the sonic and bright effects of its integrated electronic devices, the visitor hears the sound of clouds (that the concrete has recorded previously) and sees blurs of light through the concrete. He will go through an unexpected visual landscape consisting of breaths of air, rustles of clouds, whirlpools of water, crackles of ice or seismic vibrations translated into soft lights or brilliant flashes.
This artwork was sponzored by the Foundation Bettencourt-Schueller.
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