Tony Oursler, "Eclipse"

Pioneer in video art, Tony Oursler exhibits his ingenious devices—part sculpture, installation and performance—around the world. For the exhibition Trees, he creates Eclipse, an in situ installation where the Mur végétal [Plant Wall] of Patrick Blanc is used to create ghostly images

He writes: “The enchanted forests are a refuge for our imagination.” Inspired by the transformation of Daphne into a tree, the Tree of Life from the Norse cosmogony, or a drawing of a tree by Charles Darwin representing his evolutionary theory, and the new DNA technology that allows the human genome to be modified, he creates a dynamic sound and light installation where vegetation become the center of conflicting world views.

Eclipse was conceived and produced specially for the garden of the Fondation Cartier. Thematically concerned with the environment and its relationship to technology and magical thinking, this work invites the participant to contemplate their position within the biosphere. Tony Oursler’s intervention take multiple forms here such as a talking light and a cast of shifting digital projections which include a disaster-zone reporter, new ager, psychologist, medieval wild-woman, the Green Man and an unstable businessman

Photo : © Thibaut Voisin