Charlotte Charbonnel

For the latest edition of its Art and Science Programme, the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie welcomes Charlotte Charbonnel, a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores matter in all its forms, both visible and invisible. Inspired by the lunar "Mare Nubium" she offers a sensory journey where she uses matter from its most elementary state to its most subtle metamorphoses.

 

The exhibition

Charbonnel is known for her work on materials and invisible phenomena. She delves into natural elements such as minerals, water and sound and electromagnetic waves, modifying them in works that feel both physical and poetic. 

‘Mare Nubium’ (Sea of Clouds) seeks to establish a dialogue with the spaces of the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie. Charbonnel wanted to create “a massive flow of material” that would pour down from the ceiling into the gallery space.

A huge, shiny material (originally developed by NASA) is gradually brought to life with lights and videos, morphing into an ever-changing substance, gallium — a metal with a very low melting point (29.8° C) that alternates, in the right conditions, between solid and liquid form. 

The videos in the exhibition were filmed by the artist at 1000 frames per second with the Laboratoire Magma et Volcan (LMV), which studies pyroclastic flows, among other phenomena. In this installation, a sort of immense synesthetic tracking shot, matter is first and foremost light, becomes a moving image, then a molten liquid, before solidifying into a seemingly inert volume.

The exhibition evokes the idea of energy through heat, cracking and the expansion of the lunar surface. (‘Mare Nubium’ refers to the 'Sea of Clouds', a lunar mare situated in the Nubium basin on the Moon's near side — a vast plain filled with solidified lava). The artist brings to the fore the impact that the Earth and the Moon have on each other. Contrary to popular belief, the Moon is not geologically inactive and the sensors left behind by NASA's Apollo missions detect regular seismic tremours.  In 'Selenophonia', lunar activity is transformed into audible sound waves by vibrating a metal plate. 

The works in the 'Molybdomancies’ series, 'Morphology of Ashes', 'Fulgur', and a set of large photographs, transport us deep inside matter, where the infinitely small seems to form a landscape that defies our sense of scale.

As if emerging from this mineral magma, volcanic rocks are scattered about, their surfaces printed with images of the Moon and other celestial bodies. 
‘Mare Nubium’ encourages us to engage with this paradoxical material, at once lifeless and vibrant, liquid and solid, static and dynamic, as it journeys through space, offering novel perspectives on our world.

The artist