Luiz Zerbini – Trees
07/12/2019 — 11/10/2019
Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris, France
Bringing together a community of artists, botanists, and philosophers, the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain echoes the latest scientific research that sheds new light on trees. Organized around several large ensembles of works, the exhibition. Trees gives voice to numerous figures who, through their aesthetic or scientific journey, have developed a strong, intimate link with trees, thereby revealing the beauty and biological wealth of these great protagonists of the living world, threatened today with large-scale deforestation.
Underestimated by biology for a long time, trees—like the entirety of the plant kingdom—have been the subject of scientific discoveries in recent years that have allowed us to see the oldest members of our community of living beings* in a new light. Boasting sensory and memory capacities, as well as communication skills, existing in symbiosis with other species and exerting a climatic influence, trees are equipped with unexpected faculties whose discovery has given way to the fascinating hypothesis of “plant intelligence,” which could be the answer to many of today’s environmental problems. In resonance with this “plant revolution,” the exhibition Trees merges the ideas of artists and researchers, thus prolonging the exploration of ecological issues and the question of humans’ relationship to nature.
Featuring drawings, paintings, photographs, films, and installations by artists from Latin America, Europe, the United States, Iran, and from indigenous communities such as the Nivaclé and Guaraní from Gran Chaco, Paraguay, as well as the Yanomami Indians who live in the heart of the Amazonian forest, the exhibit, punctuated by several large ensembles, explores three narrative threads. Firstly, our knowledge of trees—from botany to new plant biology—; secondly, aesthetics—from naturalistic contemplation to dreamlike transposition—; and lastly, trees’ current devastation recounted via documentary observations and pictorial testimonies.
Orchestrated with anthropologist Bruce Albert, who has accompanied the Fondation Cartier’s inquisitive exploration of such themes since the exhibition Yanomami, Spirit of the Forest (2003), the project revolves around a number of individuals who have developed a unique relationship with trees, whether intellectual, scientific or aesthetic.
Guided more by the aesthetics of an intuitive collection than by a search for scientific rigor, Brazilian artist Luiz Zerbini, on the other hand, composes lush landscapes, organizing the imaginary meeting of trees, borrowed from tropical botanical gardens, and the markers of urban modernity.
Credits
Automatica has been developing cultural projects since 2005, working in the creation, production, curation, management, coordination and consultancy of exhibitions, educational programs, publications and other activities related to artistic production. It works with artists, curators, art critics, art historians, cultural institutions, public and private sponsors. It participates in public notices and awards, and prepares projects for incentive laws in the three spheres of public administration.
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