Act II:
Second Nature

Opening Weekend
15 - 18 June, 2023

Show
July 4 - August 12, 2023

Nicolas Bourthoumieux

---

Martin Belou

---

Anne Marie Maes

---

INSTALLATION VIEWS

---

text by Jérôme Nicod

As we know now, we won’t have a second chance with Nature, and yet we continue to distinguish and set ourselves apart from it. Natura naturans/Natura naturata is a classical opposition principle used in philosophy, which has historically helped us draw a clear distinction between what pre-exists man, the laws of nature created by God and the rest all the living beings created by him. As scientists are widely acknowledging the fact that the entire physical and living world has now been profoundly modified by human activity, the concept of Nature is taking a critical turn. How can Nature as we know it, still exist in today’s world?

Given that the constant addition of Register of Knowledge , COPs and referendums do not seem to induce any profound changes for the Anthropocene, could it be that we are now required to propose, in a more modest way, a resistance from within ?

Second Nature exhibition invites us to reconsider how art can be made in today’s ecological context, and how art can poetically hint at new and more modest approaches in our response to the climate crisis.

Through the work they present in Second Nature, the three artists partake in a double writing between nature and artist . With modesty and care, artists become co-authors of their works of art. By sampling and crystallizing elements and primary laws, they bypass the representation of the art object and instead bear witness to the presence of Nature. Each piece refers both to the Balearic Islands’ specific and unique environment, an immensely rich ecological sphere, and to the wider gesture of shifting the viewer’s attention from a collection of artefacts to the presence of Nature.