1200 anodized aluminium labels, laser engraving, 2020
Jardin Botanique Alpin, Meyrin, Geneva, CH
The legacy of our time is ash. The glaciers have disappeared. The air is stale, charred, opaque and burning. The seas and oceans have overflowed and submerged the land. Water is rationed, contaminated, drained of life. Desertification is habitual and soils are barren. Forests are bare and trees no longer green as there are no insects left to pollinate them. Birds' nests are created from pieces of plastic. Animals are fierce predators for us, they are isolated. They are only images in the few books that remain. We are very few and we are armed. We have confined ourselves and systematically reject those of us who are ill. What is left of nature is kept in protected and guarded places. Oblivion and ignorance is our culture. Unregulated liberalism dominates the world. Industrial activity is growing without limits. The consequences of climate change exhibit daily. The health situation is alarming. Unknown bacteria and viruses resistant to antibiotics are growing and proliferating. A cascade of unprecedented climatic and health disasters is affecting humans, fauna and flora. The global balance is destroyed. The world is falling apart. January 2020
LA BEAUTÉ DU MONDE (The beauty of the world), an intervention on the labelling of the plants all over the botanical garden of the city of Meyrin. The installation tells a catastrophic story and heralds a tragic future. The labels covering the plates identifying the plants refer to the history of mankind and its cycles of destruction in an environmental, health and political context, which is devastated. Projected in a time when ignorance and loss of acquired knowledge is the norm, the visitor turns to the diversity and beauty of trees and plants, priceless gems that need to be protected.
Rédaction: Florian Bach, Anne-Laure Sahy, Arnaud Robin
Corrections: Simone Bach - Montage: Joëlle Masselot, Linus Johansson
Engraving: RB Gravure Vernier, Thomas et Roland Betschart - Thanks to Darius Golchan
Photo: Isabelle Meister, Florian Bach