SYNTONIE: Caroline le Méhauté

Metanoïa

in the middle, among, with, between, beyond, after ¹

At the heart of Caroline Le Méhauté’s practice lies a questioning of how we are in the world, how we situate and position ourselves, how we question our impact on it and, beyond that, how we inscribe in it this permanent state of “negotiation” and adaptability.

In this age of dematerialization, the physicality and materiality of the artist’s sculptural work are compelling. Whether frontal or immersive, it engages the viewer’s body in a sensitive experience of time and space. Present, past and future coexist and convey movement and transformation. Her relationship with the living brings together natural and industrial materials in a semantic back-and-forth that questions the original dichotomy between nature and culture.

For Caroline Le Méhauté, earth, as Septembre Tiberghien writes, “constantly updates the past in the present, without interrupting its evolution. Hence the impression of timelessness that generally emanates from the artist’s pieces, seeming at once to belong to an ancestral heritage and to a near and distant future “².

Works are established through stratifications that replay a temporal continuum. Nature is understood as a dynamic reality and the principle of all movement (Aristotle). The choice of materials always carries meaning: peat, central to the artist’s work, is a unique ecosystem, a veritable biological conservatory, a microcosm that has become rare and precious.

Somewhere between ontology, topology and metaphysical questioning, Caroline Le Méhauté fashions densities of existence that reveal themselves with strength and silence. Potentially charged with the immensity of what precedes us, her works - in the era now referred to as the Anthropocene, at the very least - call upon our state of awareness and vigilance with regard to the shadow cast by man. 

Pascale Viscardy

[Tellus Project]

Through an approach that is at once poetic, philosophical, scientific and political, Caroline Le Méhauté explores the multiple relationships between Man and Living Things. [Tellus Project] brings together a series of experimental works that engage both thought and action in matter. The artist engages in an act of soil regeneration by plants, and a reflection on new ways of living and inhabiting the earth. Polymorphic, [Tellus Project] evolves through various sculptural, performative and participatory creations.
The artist’s focus here is on the soil as the foundation of life. It is one of the planet’s most important biological reservoirs. Bacteria, fungi, insects and many other organisms live and interact in the soil. As a nutrient carrier for vegetation, it plays a key role in the quality of our food, as well as in the carbon, nitrogen and water cycles, making it a key component of our ecosystem. 

A recent IPBES report states that 75% of the planet’s emerged soils are currently degraded. Caroline Le Méhauté looks at the different qualities of soil and the methods used to remedy their pollution. The practice of excavating polluted soil, massively employed by local authorities and industry, may prove necessary in certain extreme cases of pollution, but cannot be the only solution in the face of today’s ecological challenges. Other methods, less invasive and more respectful of the local ecosystem, may be preferred, enabling soil to be treated without having to be excavated.

That’s why the artist is looking for, experimenting with and sharing a way of caring for suffering soils, in particular through the action of plants. Phytoremediation is a method based on the ability of certain plants to regenerate soil. Thanks to their specific enzymes and metabolism, these plants are able to break down and digest certain types of pollutants, such as hydrocarbon and PCB molecules, and accumulate heavy metals in their roots.

Fundamentally linked to soil regeneration, the earth and what grows on it, [Tellus Project] unfolds through a series of experimental works that combine art and science, stimulating thought as much as action in matter. It engages in active, participatory reflection with citizens through workshops, participative worksites, performative installations and phyto-happenings.