UNMISSABLE Exhibitions: Lille, France

A UTOPIA of culture, creativity, and ecology brings revolutionary concepts, animal wisdom, and Native knowledge.

A time to think, dream, and imagine…….

There are those memorable occasions when an exhibition enables us to look at life using fresh new eyes, and even better still, through the eyes of animals. The Lille Expo in France– themed Utopia, presents both, and the result is simply staggering. A rallying and empathetic response to the current climate crisis, the event sees the city and its environs, immersed in culture like one spectacular exhibition. A tapestry of energy and creativity it invites visitors to contemplate, and rather than a debilitating and didactic translation of what the world is facing, it inspires new perceptions.

 

Multidisciplinary approaches to an eco-crisis

Artists, inventors, composers, architects, and scientists from around the planet, platform provocative interpretations on the pressing theme of how humankind views the natural world. Essentially, questioning the animal/human hierarchy. With presentations in parks, warehouses, and reappropriated churches, remarkably suspended above rivers in feats of engineering ingenuity, all utilised to ensure nature is placed centre-stage, in an age of consumption. Utopia enables an exploration of an idealistic and generally unfeasible notion. Yet in turn offers almost endless opportunities to think, dream and imagine. Indeed while things environmentally and economically are undoubtedly bleak, the event acts as an enabler, a raconteur, and blimey, at times, a fun facilitator of what could be merely overwhelming.

 

Sound and vision

Throughout this powerful, immersive, participatory event and exhibition, all 5 senses are impacted.   Peter de Cuperes towering and monumental 9-metre-tall surreal sculpture of a bulb in flower expels scent when scratched and is highly memorable, sensuous, and humorous. Julian Charrierre’s video installation of Liquid Fire glows in dizzying, dark beauty, conveying a disturbing sense of underlying terror of possible ‘things to come’……Paolo Pivis polar bear made of feathers unnerves, ‘appears to melt’ in front of our eyes and lies slumped in a pathetic stance, head down and vulnerable.

 

Revolutionary

The subversive spirit of the artists, who present the most radical and pertinent work, brings bold new responses to the encroaching ecological crisis, and attention to animal injustice. A programme of events exploring lifestyle and architectural utopias, alongside innovative designs, inspired by the natural world, transport the visitor to an escapist realm where we can dream, imagine and encounter the potential of positive futures. Indigenous artworks, whimsical representations, and breathtakingly beautiful creations invite contemplation. Heart-breaking and terrifying concepts offer food for thought, firing the imagination and inspiring ACTION.

Upon arrival at Lille, a large textile presentation looms overhead as the train pulls into the station, its amorphous form billowing like a breathing lung and giving a taste of what’s to come. Entering the central High Street, Kim Simmonsons-Moss People line the avenue, looking like they’ve stepped straight out of a forest for the day. These magical gigantic green figures stand on a 5-metre plinth, their lifelike yet otherworldly appearance is awe-inspiring. I’ve never seen such precious work fit so pertinently into an event’s theme. The municipality and region holistically embrace the event, and there is an evidential sense of pride in the city from locals in what has been achieved.

 

Kim Simmons, Moss People

 

But it’s Ghyslain Bertholon’s bronze sculpture Resilience that packs the most powerful punch. Placed alone in the centre of a seemingly ecclesiastical space, a single tree trunk stump stands with an axe deep in its core. From its wooden handle, branches grow, with golden leaves sprouting at their tip. Cast in bronze, this symbol of inspired defiance and environmental resilience, will remain in my mind for a lifetime.

Lille is on a mission to change perceptions and encourage cooperative collaborations across nations and disciplines.  With some heavyweight funders and supporters including LVMH (Louis Vuitton/Moet Hennessy) and SNCF (National Society French Railways) there is also plenty of local support and participation. Ambitious and inclusive it confounds norms.  Endeavouring to view the ecological and climate crisis from the animal vantage is ingenious. After years and thousands of shows I’ve been fortunate enough to visit locally and globally, this is in the top 3 and has me teetering on my soapbox to spread the word and share the inspiration.

 

Ancient insight

The CARTIER Foundation’s immense presentation at the Tripostal space brings a transformational and mutual relationship with the environmental aesthetic, where ecological knowledge leads to an alliance with other species. Les Vivants gathers 250 drawings, paintings, installations, and films, notably including a unique selection of almost 200 South American native works. It’s an extension of an exhibition and dialogue developed over two decades with 26 native artists from the Brazilian/Venezuelan Amazonia, and the Paraguayan Chaco: Informed by their own origin story and tradition-where humans, animals and plants are all equal, and where shamans act as diplomats, organising relationships between them.

Bruce Albert, anthropologist, and curator at Les Vivants exhibition has been studying and working with the Yanomami tribe since 1974, stating “Our stories have drawn an arbitrary border between humans and non-humans. A hierarchy that has made nature no more than decoration and an environment to be shamelessly tapped. All these works invite us to shake off such anthropocentrism and take a more humble place among these living beings, whom we never should have tried to rise above… On their hunting and gathering expeditions, the Yanomami maintain a dialogue with the Amazonian forests”.

 

Oratory

Such biophany-the collective sound vocal non-human animals create in each habitat/environment,

is also at the heart of Bernie Krause’s work. The renowned American musician/composer, whose Great Animal Orchestra fills the space with an aural and visual sound-scape. For over 40 years he has gathered 5000 hours of sound recordings from natural habitats, terrestrial and marine. Immersing visitors in the aural world of animals and inviting us to listen to seven soundscapes from Africa and America. It is a profound experience that engulfs while imploring us to hear these voices before they’re shrouded in silence, as humankind encroaches globally upon every aspect of animal life. Daily.

For some, poverty and lifestyle have been positively and significantly impacted during the last half a century, given the global population has more than doubled and continues to grow…..How humankind has achieved this is evidently at the expense of the natural world, especially animals. Who can forget the famous photo (Caters News agency) of that final tree standing with the last orangutan, pregnant and clinging to it as the entire forest in Borneo was cleared to make way for a palm oil plantation in 2013? All in the name of ‘progress’ and people striving and demanding more and more. And more.

Resultantly the 2019 Platform on Biodiversity and Eco System report (IPBES) revealed around 1 million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction, many within decades. Nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history — and the rate of species extinctions is accelerating, with grave impacts on people around the world. “The overwhelming evidence from a wide range of different fields of knowledge, presents an ominous picture,” said the (IPBES) Chair, Sir Robert Watson. “The health of ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever. We are eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health, and quality of life worldwide.

Based on the systematic review of about 15,000 scientific and government sources, the Report also draws (for the first time at this scale) on indigenous and local knowledge, particularly addressing issues relevant to Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities.“Biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people are our common heritage and humanity’s most important life-supporting ‘safety net’. But our safety net is stretched almost to breaking point,” said Prof. Sandra Díaz “The diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems, as well as many fundamental contributions we derive from nature, are declining fast, although we still have the means to ensure a sustainable future for people and the planet.”

Not that historically in the wider and mostly Western art world, some Indigenous work was viewed dismissively as folk art and other. Thankfully contemporary opinions have generally changed. A groundbreaking book Between Memory and Museum, edited by Gita and Arun Wolf (2017) is significant, stating neither museum nor the public should romanticise the tribal or revert to the colonial label of, primitive. Moreover, museums should be receptive to such identities and provide opportunities for interactions between cultures. It is no secret that many such institutions are currently falling over themselves to accommodate and update collections to diversify often outmoded, exclusive, and mostly Western collections.

 

Artist – Jaider Esbell

 

The large Tripostal space dedicated to Indigenous artists is magnetic. With insightful work which holistically considers that culture and climate change are symbiotic. One of the Macuxi people, Jaider Esbell’s art with its mythology and graphic sensibility has integrity, sophisticated naivety, and authenticity. A successful Brazilian Native artist, activist, writer, and curator, known for his political presentations, verbal and visual. Cosmology and spirituality are imbued in his creativity.

Respected throughout the art world, Esbell uses his work to represent the peoples and cultures of the Amazon, especially their struggles with political powers. (And where ‘cash’ rather than culture/inhabitants, takes precedence).

 

Artist-Jaider Esbell

 

The art’s compelling animal narrative throughout his artwork is ever more acute and affecting, knowing Esbell recently took his own life. A spectacular loss of one with such foresight and sensitivity as to what matters. “My best work is politics, not those colourful drawings, or the snake in the lake; those are elements to grab attention and spark discussion on issues such as global warming and ecological urgency,” Esbell told  news organisation, Agence France Press “This is a key moment because everyone is fighting, but nobody is fighting for the ecological emergency.”

 

Far from ‘flights of fancy’

The outstanding and unexpectedly hard-hitting Les Habitants is a film made in 1970 by Artavazo Pelechian which brings insight into how the lives of animals are impacted by humanity. And appears to forecast with frightening accuracy. Some visitors were visibly alarmed and walked out during this short but powerful piece. Unsettling and relentless, it very simply captures various animals perpetually fleeing. A revolutionary presentation hailed then as radical in both content and method, more relevant now than ever.

Animals continue to be negatively impacted in terms of habitat loss as well as poached from the wild for the pet trade or used in laboratories. As Dr. Julia Baines, Science Policy Manager at the organisation People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, (PETA) states“More than 9 million animals are used in experiments in Europe annually. This suffering is completely needless, as experiments on animals do not translate well to human biology. That’s why PETA advocates for the modernisation of science and a transition away from animal experimentation”.

 

Art as nature and visa versa

A man made from mud clay, lies on a trolley with tubes protruding from various parts of his body. A wet cloth lies by his side and is brushed over him since water is needed to keep him ‘alive’. Naturally, grass is growing from his body! It’s a distracting, somewhat bewildering scene. And in part serves as a reminder of what many animals endure, in laboratories. Yet this is also an alluring sight because of the nature-based attributes and sharply brings an ethical element as a reminder of what the show is all about. Furthermore, after days of exploring, it is a reminder of the diversity of presentations on display. Fabrice Hyber and his Father have sown some 300,000 tree seeds over 40 years in a valley next to the family farm. Gradually transforming the fields into a forest and the landscape into a work of art. In his practice, Hyber the artist, who studied science before art school, intuitively and poetically observes the permanent transformations of the living world while proposing a dream-like vision of the hybridity between humans and plants. An advocate of positive ecology, he explores the living world’s infinite possibilities of regeneration. We need MORE of this!

 

Fabrice Hyber

 

Proudly sustainable

Since 2004 when Lille was the Capital of Culture and with 6 subsequent exhibitions, they’ve become seasoned pro’s. Mayor Martine Aubrey says of Utopia 2022 expo“We want to write a new chapter in the cultural and daily life of its citizens. Resulting in a long-standing commitment to fighting climate change through concrete actions in all areas. We wish to participate actively, individually, and collectively in the protection of fauna and flora. Our opera house is the first in France certified (*1) ISO 20121 for its sustainable development and inclusion policy”.

 

Magical imaginings

The Palais des Beaux-Arts takes the more established field of art history and selects artworks to reconsider nature-not solely as symbolic subjects of reverence, but as expressions of ecological prophecy. The visitor enters an immersive space of semi-darkness where Le Foret Magique reveals an ambitious overview of animal and environmental work whose immediacy leaves a strong impact. A soundless snow video installation mesmerises with stark simplicity, Valerie Sonnier’s portrait of a forest spirit, glides with eerie beauty-is it human or animal? Varying media are presented as rarefied and bejeweled. Marc Couturiers-Aucuba leaf stands solitary and illuminated in a glass case as though sacred idolatry. Referencing the romantic and magical properties of nature, the show and its message are a must-see.

 

Valerie Sonnier, Spirit Figure

 

Community participation:

The expo invited residents to participate in the creation of presentations and events. Joanna Vasconcelos’s radical feminist craftwork maintains a presence throughout the exhibition. Enlisting residents in the making of her work, mostly at the Folie Wazemmmes space. Her Le Jardin d’Eden installation is a whimsical, kitsch joy, plunging visitors into darkness, only to immerse them in a field of luminous imitation flowers. Take time to meditate here, as it’s unexpectedly transcendental and surreal!

 

Emo de Medieros-Helmet 2021

 

Continuing in the spiritual realm, Le Serpent Cosmique presents an anthropological array of art, some space-age, almost archaic in appearance, and includes Emo de Medieros, Helmet 2021. The Alpha Wave Project is an arresting aural psychedelic journey in sound and vision. Lying flat on my back, eyes closed as the installation requests, an oddly profound trip takes place. Surely the most out-of-body and mind experience minus the hallucinogens and it’s fantastic. But be warned, it’s effective.

 

Inspired creature communication

As President Thierry Landron of the Lille 3000 series states “In these dates of pressing environmental and climate concerns, the theme Utopia focuses on the ties that bind humankind to other living things”.  Indeed. When animals cannot give voice to their plight, the art speaks on their behalf, and when it whispers, it’s wise to listen to better understand what’s taken some, an age to appreciate. Hopefully, before it’s too late. And when the voice screams- it’s to implore society that animals too have their place on this planet. It is surely time to work together to communicate, cooperate and liase on behalf of all the planets inhabitants, to find solutions. The expo is a treasure chest of past, present, and future possibilities. A powerful, global utopia and dystopia of body, mind, creativity, spirit, and environment. The most holistic, poignant, radical, and remarkable body of work. Immense and intense, it’s a must-see.

 

UTOPIA Runs until 2nd October 2022 and can book tickets here

 

Eco-friendly TRAVEL PRACTICALITIES;

Eurostar direct to Lille from London daily, for more info visit www.eurostar.com/uk

Stay at Eco Hotel OKKO, click here to book

 

Words and photography by Wendyrosie Scott

 

Bernie Krause-Animal Orchestra

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