Michal-Sophia Tobiass - Les Coquelicots

Les Coquelicots — In Situ Installation

In Collaboration with the Bees of Fontainebleau Forest
Silvarea@Qicabane Residency, Fontainebleau
La Nuit des Forêts
2024

Stones collected in the Fontainebleau forest, Dead Sea salt, water, red ochre, burned wood, beeswax, time

Project developed during the Silvarea@Qicabane residency in Fontainebleau, with the support of Galerie Odile Ouizeman, and presented as part of La Nuit des Forêts.

This installation is part of a research into the rock engravings of the Fontainebleau forest and the poppy, understood as a vector of memory, fertility and transformation.

A solution of Dead Sea salt, water and red ochre is prepared over several days, then applied to the stones before being sealed beneath beeswax. The materials continue their own becoming: the salt crystallises, the wax transforms, the surfaces evolve.

The installation remained in the forest for several weeks, activated by its environment. The bees of Fontainebleau came to collect the crystallised salt. Their intervention opened the wax like lace, transforming the work into an experience of coexistence in which the living becomes a co-author of the process.

Press release — En Résonance, Silvarea@Qicabane, La Nuit des Forêts