Alexandre Guerre
La timidité des arbres - Installation - 2017
presented as part of the exhibition panorama 19
Lie down and let yourself be rocked by this jungle.
As you listen, you will perhaps wonder about
the strange forms dancing above you. It is a rare
botanical phenomenon called “crown shyness”
brought to you here from a Malaysian jungle.
The initial purpose of this installation is to raise
awareness. Plants belong to the category of living
beings too, something we are inclined to forget.
Poorly understood by botanists, crown shyness in
trees is a phenomenon still under investigation.
An anthropomorphic term, it alludes to our human
social behavior, to our need for personal space,
to our mutual proxemic relations. Why and how
are physical distances with a stranger or someone
close established? A physical distance is very
often the translation of a psychological distance.
If trees behave socially, that implies individuals
must be conscious of their environment and of
each other. Is communication the sole preserve
of animals? Faced with a phenomenon such as
crown shyness, doubts arise.
Certain tribes that still populate the jungle
have animist beliefs; for them, spirits do not
just dwell in living creatures. They can be
found in anything. In that case, trees would be
entities, like you and me, that constantly express
themselves. One just has to learn how to listen
to them.
Alexandre Guerre
Until now, my practice has been based on sound, installation, sculpture, photography, performance and film. But my work is not reflected in the media used, but rather in my experimentation of the latter. I always try to find new ways of exploring, of thinking out of the box, of testing the limits of the media used. Taking a sound recorder instead of a camera to record my trips has gradually changed my perception of the environment. I have learned to prefer apprehending a space by listening even whilst taking a glance. Listening is to imagine, to project, a bit like when you read a book. It is through listening to spaces that my art practice has become more orientated towards a desire to identify the inaudible, the imperceptible that surrounds us.
