Laurine
WAGNER
artist
Environmental consciousness
Let’s wash the cotton, 2019
Installation, wood, recycled fabrics, white threads, 60 cotton removal pads, pins, floor mats, cushion, headphones, 200 x 150 x 200 cm
Sound composition from poetic recordings, 6’54’’, loop
60 days and 120 non-reusable cotton removal disks. How can one report the danger of pollution on our health and our environment ? How can we change our habits and act immediately ?
Cotton production dries up water resources such as the Aral Sea, located between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, formerly the 4th largest lake on the planet. In the 1960s this sea had disappeared following the intensive production of wheat, peach and cotton, and it was a real ecological disaster. But since 2005, thanks to man’s will to recover this vital water and take care, this time, it has reappeared following the many efforts made.
This experimental and immersive installation allows viewers to lie down and meditate in peace. Above them, a collection of 60 cotton pads is suspended; they are the trace of a process gesture that consists in “removing make-up” from your face and “unclogging” the fine and invisible particles of the pollution that we encounter daily.
Should we necessarily go through an ecological upheaval to grow aware, understand and react ?
Alternatives exist such as washable cottons : act !
This artwork was specially designed for the exhibition “Dur-Ability ?” which took place at the Fondation Biermans-Lapôtre in the 14th arrondissement of Paris from 10 to 13 April 2019 with Simon Chemineau and Jessica Da Silva.