SymbioticA

Art Oriente Objet: Plutot que tout (More Than Everything)

FURTHER INFORMATION

Country of origin

France

Website:

https://aoo.free.fr/

Plutôt que tout (More than everything), 2012, High Definition video, 35:00mins
Sponsor: IASKA and SymbioticA

BiographyArt Orient Objet

Founded in 1991 Art Oriente’ objet, (Marion Laval-Jeantet and Benoit Mangin), place the scientific interrogation of ecology and human existence at the centre of their art practice. Working across installation, performance, video and photography, they conduct ongoing experiments in which biology, psychology and ethnology intersect. Solo exhibitions include Plutôt que tout, La Maison Populaire, Montreuil, France, 2011; L’alalie, Le Magasin, Grenoble, France, 2010; and Le Pensador, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2006. Group exhibitions include Second Life, Casino Luxembourg, Luxembourg, 2011; Synthethic, Naturhistorisches Museum, Wien, Autriche, 2011; and CyberArts 2011, Prix Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria, 2011.

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PLUTÔT QUE TOUT (MORE THAN EVERYTHING)

French collective, Art Orienté objet, were originally invited by SymbioticA, a leading international bio-art organisation located at the University of Western Australia, to propose an artistic project that responded to Mandurah’s unique wetland environment, specifically Lake Clifton, home to living thrombolites, one of the earliest known life forms on earth. Art Orienté objet immersed themselves in the cultural and ecological environs of Lake Clifton, conducting scientific investigations, interviews with local Indigenous people and learning more about this unusual site. Long interested in the intersections between art, science and technology, they were drawn to the many questions that Lake Clifton raises around endangered ecosystems and cultural anthropology. The artists developed several projects out of their residency, including a sculpture of carved kangaroo bones and an ‘anthropological movie’, documenting the community around the lake, leading to a proposal that the thrombolites’ be recognised for its environmental and cultural value via UNESCO’s World Heritage listing. They also initiated: two TV programs in a French art centre; an online petition to give the thrombolites World Heritage listing, and the symbolic twinning between Montreuil (France) and Mandurah, in a ‘glocal’ attempt — that is, “think local, act global”— to reconsider our responsibility towards Nature.