Strange, metamorphic faces: those of these nine middle school students transforming into flowers before our very eyes. Colonized by petals inspired by the papier-mâché flowers, wood, and other materials crafted in the 19th century.e Created in the 19th century for educational purposes by Robert Brendel in Germany, these hybridized faces mutate under the influence of artificial intelligence trained on floral images. Born from research and discussions with plant biologists, the documentary film unfolding before our eyes transforms itself into a fable, straddling the line between fairy tale and science fiction. “I am a botanical chimera […] a tangle of roots that take root in outer space.”, we hear from the blossoming mouth of one of the mutant protagonists after the computer system modeling the plant development process 1 associated with AI has generated improbable human-plant transformations.
Unfolding in three chapters, from research and encounters with plants to artificial mutation, the film resembles a coming-of-age story and creates a strange symbiosis between its subject matter—the fictional narrative of a mutation—and its actors, teenagers themselves in transition. Fond of blurring boundaries (between the real and the artificial, botany and technology…), Lea Collet, fresh out of Le Fresnoy's National Studio of Contemporary Arts, leads us to the intersection of artificial intelligence and the imagined artificial, inviting us to consider AI's creative potential as a possible advancement, an open door to an unknown world capable of generating new forms of poetry. Here, associated with survival, mutation appears primarily as a dream and a fantasy: that of "becoming fluid, free to pass from one form to another […] plural, ambiguous…".
1 – L-system or Lindenmayer system invented in 1968 by the Hungarian biologist Aristid Lindenmayer, modeling the growth process of living beings such as plants or cells.
Passionate about gardening, Lea Collet (born in Lyon in 1989) studied at DIU ArTeC+ (Paris) after attending the Slade School of Fine Art and the Camberwell College of Arts in London.
Installation based on an adaptation of an original work
by Léa Collet. Produced by Le Fresnoy – national studio
contemporary arts, 2023
© Léa Collet – Le Fresnoy – National Studio for Contemporary Arts – 2023
Artwork visible in the exhibition
« Tomorrow is cancelled… »
EDF Foundation space
6, rue Juliette-Récamier, Paris 7e
Until September 20, 2024
