mathieu lehanneur brings the inventory of life to triennale milano

MATHIEU LEHANNEUR LOOKS INTO ERASING THE BOUNDARIES BETWEEN DESIGN, SCIENCE, ART AND TECHNOLOGY

During the 2021 edition of Art Basel, Mathieu Lehanneur presented State of the World, an exhibition which rendered the Earth’s shifting populations into sculptural objects. For Milan Design Week 2022, the French designer continues his exploration on the subject with a solo show at Triennale Milano curated by Maria Cristina Didero titled The Inventory of Life.

Including four installations — State of the World, 50 seas, Live/Leave, and How Deep is Time — Lehanneur looks into erasing the boundaries between design, science, art and anthropology.

‘The main idea behind this exhibition is trying to turn information into emotion,’ Mathieu Lehanneur told designboom during the opening of the exhibition.

all images by Raf Studio – Felipe Ribon, unless otherwise noted
video © designboom

THE INVENTORY OF LIFE INVESTIGATES THE STATE OF THE PLANET

The Inventory of Life exhibition by Mathieu Lehanneur (see more here) at Triennale Milano investigates the state of the planet, taking into consideration the fragility and transience of human life, accompanied by an acknowledgement of the long-term damage done to the environment by climate change-with a particular focus on rising sea levels and marine ecosystems.

The four different installations take scientific and statistical data and translates them into design and art pieces, resorting to these disciplines to foster a connection between data, the planet, and the environment. ‘In my work, as a designer, artist, or architect, and regardless of whether I’m producing a one-off or mass-produced piece, I want each piece to speak uniquely,’ said Mathieu Lehanneur.

In State of the World, Lehanneur renders both the past and the future of the world in a series of sculptural ‘pyramids.’ The forms of the aluminum sculptures take shape from the changing populations of different countries around the globe. Using statistics usually studied by sociologists and demographers, the artist creates a ‘snapshot’ of all the humans living today in over 140 countries.

50 seas is a collection of fifty enameled ceramic works inspired by the many nuances and shades of the sea. From the Gulf of Guinea to the Hudson’s Bay, from Antarctica’s Weddell sea to the Bay of Bengal, the pieces crystallize the global color scheme of the world’s liquid environment, selecting a chromatic topology of the ocean in order to pay homage to its subtleties.

In How Deep is Time, a luminous glass filament hanging from the ceiling represents a visual projection and at once a prediction of sea level change in the near future. Because this is uncertain, and the estimates are mutually variable, Lehanneur materializes in this work several predictions, slightly discordant with each other, but equally critical for humanity.