126 Boussoles à la page Présage, Hicham Berrada, vidéo, 2013. Présage, Hicham Berrada, video, 2013. Sans titre, Chema Madoz, photographie (à droite). Village Green, Vaughn Bell, installation, 2008 (à gauche). Untitled, Chema Madoz, photograph (right). Village Green, Vaughn Bell, installation, 2008 (left). Arts du bricolage ou pratiques monumentales, toutes ces œuvres « habitent avec » le monde et renouvellent notre regard sur la Terre, au lieu de nous soumettre à un écologisme punitif. Le climat de beauté et d’inquiétante étrangeté de ces Climats artifciels propose enfn une dérive dans les nuages, comme dans cette bouleversante installation de Tetsuo Kondo, Cloudscapes, où se meut le visiteur émerveillé : à l’intérieur d’une structure transparente, il gravit des marches et traverse ainsi un nuage à la foconneuse et enveloppante douceur. CLIMATS ARTIFICIELS Jusqu’au 28.02. 6, rue Récamier, Paris. Tél. +33 (0)1 45 23 14 14. http://fondation.edf.com Présage, Hicham Berrada, aquarium et paysage chimique, 2013. Présage, Hicham Berrada, aquarium and chemical landscape, 2013. From confrontation to contemplation In these dispiriting environmental times, the EDF Foundation presents a poetic breath of fresh air in an exhibition of atmospheric and imaginative artworks. Given the precarious, unstable and unpredictable equilibrium of the environment, it might have been tempting to organize a militant, socially committed exhibition, as we rally to the bedside of the planet. But would it have been effective ? Instead, the EDF Foundation opted to take a subtle step sideways : not to add noise and fury to the clamor surrounding the undeniable climate change, but rather to offer, through a multitude of different media—photographs, videos, installations and prints, and, more surprisingly, balloons, cotton and ceramics—more subtle and poetic forms of expression. These artistic creations explore the interplay between natural and artifcial, and address the gravity of the issue while drawing the viewer into surprising sensorial experiences. The exhibition begins with the 1960s and’70s and the nascent awareness of ecological issues (Yoko Ono’s Sky TV comes to mind). Leading contemporary artists, including Marina Abramović, Hans Haacke, Laurent Grasso and Ange Leccia, are participating, as is a younger generation of « eco-artists, » who strike just the right note with emotional, witty works. The constantly changing and fascinating aquariums by Hicham Berrada provide one example, along with his enchanting video Celeste. Others include Leccia’s hypnotic La Mer ; biospheres by Vaughn Bell, terrariums into which visitors can place their heads to immerse themselves in a micro-landscape of greenery and forest scents ; neon lights by Cécile Beau ; and utopian photographs by Chris Morin showing Paris overrun by nature and animals. All of these works, whether monumental or informally assembled, « inhabit » the world and present an alternative view of the planet, instead of preaching a punitive environmentalism. And fnally, these « Climats artifciels » (artifcial climates), with their beauty and unsettling strangeness, offer a detour into the clouds in Tetsuo Kondo’s stunning Cloudscapes installation. Visitors climbup steps within a transparent structure to walk through a fuffy, all-enveloping cloud. Hicham Berrada, courtesy galerie Kamel Mennour - Chema Madoz/ADAGP Paris, 2015, courtesy galerie Esther Woerdehoff - Vaughn Bell, collection de l’artiste