À nos corps lichens

Between the filaments of an endless mycelium, this exhibition tells tales from multiple worlds. Symbiotic bodies whisper the sound of marvellous forms flirting with the frontiers of our contemporary realities. Each artist blossoms a set of stories and references whose interweaving strives to open our eyes to possible futures. Between acts of care with regenerative properties and shifting presences, the exhibition shelters works, human beings and artistic, poetic and political thoughts that draw on the symbolism conveyed by fluid ecosystems. The figure of the fungus, lichen and microorganisms that populate our biomes* is a distended thread that wanders among the mutant forms scattered throughout the gallery. Invasive species, neither plant nor animal, multicellular or unicellular, fungus - more commonly known as mushrooms - criss-cross all natural terrestrial environments, including the ocean floors. Like a network of neural veins, their hyphae** extend to connect living beings in universes that seem invisible to us. Their symbolism is as multiple as it is ambivalent. Whether a manifestation of disease, toxicity and destruction, or an image of resilience, good fortune and renewal, fungus symbolism weaves caring imaginaries that have long helped us to journey and symbiotize with the roots of our existence. In the gallery, the walls, floor and ceiling are populated by actors who explore certain marginal spaces to produce metamorphoses. Mirrored bodies don vegetal finery or activate like portals capable of opening thin space-time gaps. Here, the human, the mineral, the vegetable and the artificial mutate, hybridize, crystallize and cohabit like a set of rizomorphic filaments. We whisper of our healing capacities. We glimpse dissolved presences. The space is infused with gestures and symbols from various traditions, calling for their revaluation. Some artists guide us towards speculative fabulations*** between two worlds or between two ages, which bear witness to our potential futures. Others slip into the porosity of our bodies, our walls or our imaginary shelters, to punctuate these narratives of passage and design an organic escape towards more poetic realms. Anchored in scientific research, artistic and historical tributes, political gestures ranging from care to revolt, fermentation of collective and intimate narratives; the exhibition offers a dialogue infused with contemporary cultural rituals. In a delicate contagion, they brush up against certain myths and legends, both historical and invented. Within the heart of each form, the exhibition looks for ways to rediscover the enchantment in our flaws, our sadness, our joys, but also in our tenderness; to reactivate, cultivate and cherish our common hopes. At the threshold of the sinuous meanders of a dense, ageless forest, between the roots that tangle under swamp waters, or between the chimneys of underwater limestone reefs, sinuous forms question the viability of our socio-ecological spaces as well as our political ones. Like fungus spores, which ensure the survival of both the species and all the organisms in an ecosystem, the works in this exhibition allow us to delve into a capacity to envision the regeneration of our realities. * A biotope is a biological environment with uniform environmental conditions that provides a viable space for living beings. ** A hypha is a filamentous vegetative element, often with several cell cores, which together form the mycelium of higher fungi, certain algae and lichens. It can be several centimeters long but only a few microns in diameter, in its isolated state, therefore invisible to the naked eye. *** Speculative fabulation or narration, is a term borrowed from Donna J. Haraway and related to SF (meaning science fiction or speculative fabulation). "Telling stories and reporting facts, configuring possible worlds and times - material-semiotic worlds gone, present and yet to come - that's what SF is all about. » (Donna J. Haraway. Trans. Vivien García. Vivre avec le trouble (Staying with the trouble). Vaulx-en-Velin: Les Éditions des mondes à faire, 2020, p.59)