The Berlin-based Franco-Swiss artist takes over the Palais de Tokyo, inviting us to enter a volcanic landscape of mineral sculptures to the sound of the earth's conversations.

Julian Charrière's multidisciplinary approach combines performance, sculpture, installation, video and photography. After several group shows at the Palais de Tokyo, the 37-year-old artist, considered a seminal voice in contemporary art, makes his first solo appearance at the Parisian institution with the immersive project "Stone Speakers - Les bruits de la terre". Audiences are immersed in a space that connects them to the bowels of the planet as " a living, vibrating place ", conceived from recordings of volcanoes made in Colombia, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iceland and Sicily.

BETWEEN PERCEPTION, REPRESENTATION AND INTERACTION

From the outset, Julian Charrière's artistic career has involved fieldwork in a variety of remote locations, in collaboration with scientists, engineers, art historians and philosophers. He thus explores spaces with distinct geophysical identities, such as volcanoes, glaciers, industrial extraction sites or nuclear testing grounds.

From his expeditions, he draws rich material that he uses to tell alternative narratives in his installations, speculating on humanity's changing and evolving perception of nature. All through the prism of materiality and deep geological time. Julian Charrière draws on his years of study with Olafur Eliasson at the Institute for Spatial Experiments in Berlin.

NEW PERSPECTIVES ON UNDERSTANDING

Here, magma chambers, tides and moving tectonic plates meet around different geological entities to form a " parliament of volcanoes ". Through a multi-dimensional sound system, the art installation becomes a crater that amplifies all languages. " This architectural echo chamber explores our relationship with other forms of life, using a live stream of data from global seismic monitoring stations that capture the sounds of rock and tectonic plates ," he explains.
His aim is to encompass " romantic ideals and the realities of the Anthropocene ", i.e. the age of the human being. Julian Charrière thus reshapes planetary narratives for the 21st century, continuing to create points of convergence between human civilization and the natural environment.

" STONE SPEAKERS - THE SOUNDS OF THE EARTH" PALAIS DE TOKYO
13, AVENUE DU PRÉSIDENT-WILSON, PARIS 16E
UNTIL JANUARY 5, 2025
PALAISDETOKYO.COM