Exhibition by Clément Davout and Léo Fourdrinier – *La Vague irrésolue* + *Préludes & Fugues*

The Unresolved Wave (Nymphéa)
Drawing on sound recordings made in gardens across Normandy using hydrophones – microphones designed to record underwater sounds – the installation creates a unique soundscape of the location, one that is organic, ever-changing and deeply sensory. It takes the form of a series of aquarium-like sculptures containing stainless-steel water lilies, inspired by the aquatic vegetation found in bodies of water. Sound sources create an immersive atmosphere throughout the space. This miniature garden explores our relationship with water and the fragility of life.

It is accompanied by *Préludes et Fugues*, a selection of works from the Artothèque, Caen’s Contemporary Art Spaces, juxtaposed with plaster casts from the Musée des Automates in Falaise to forge links between abstraction and figuration, artistic production processes linked to multiples, the history of art and techniques, heritage and craftsmanship.

???? ?????????? ????????´?????????? (????????????´??) is a co-production by Station Mir, Oblique/s (Regional Centre for Artistic Creation in Digital Environments), L’Artothèque, Espaces d’art contemporain, the ]interstice[ Festival, Normandie Impressionniste and the City of Falaise, with the support of La Villette.

Clément Davout and Léo Fourdrinier work as a duo to develop a body of work combining sculpture, installation, video and sound art, which examines contemporary ecological disruptions and the dynamics of human impact on natural environments. Through installations inspired by gardens, dioramas and aquariums, they create sensitive environments in which the tensions between living organisms and the human footprint are re-enacted. Their works, conceived in relation to the locations that host them, explore the fragility of ecosystems, the gradual disappearance of certain natural worlds, and the effects of the increasing artificialisation of our environment. The duo thus develops a critical and poetic approach to nature, seeking to represent what persists, deteriorates or reinvents itself in the face of ecological upheavals. They live and work between Paris and Toulon. They graduated from ÉSAM Caen/Cherbourg in 2017. Their collaborative work has recently been exhibited in France, Luxembourg, Germany and Belgium.