
Photo : © Céleste Boursier-Mougenot, courtesy of Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
Céleste Boursier-Mougenot plays the living like an instrument. Whether with trees or with birds, he creates subtle installations that encompass the social behaviours of species and maximize the effects of the presence of living beings. For the 56th Venice Biennale, three Scotch pines were installed on motorized platforms propelled by the stimuli emitted by the trees as a function of the ambient environment (light, heat, humidity) and translated into electric waves (transHuMus, 2015). The trees moved slowly and also produced sounds that could be heard in the pavilion: the sound of nature converted into electronic sounds.