«Into Mountains: Wear Your Mirror»
Exhibition at the MBAL – Musée des beaux-arts Le Locle from 22.10.2022–26.02.2023
We are overjoyed to have won the MBAL Young Artist Award, which is part of the Triennale for Contemporary Printmaking!
On October 21, our exhibition “Into Mountains: Wear Your Mirror” will open at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Le Locle – as part of a group exhibition with renowned Canadian artist Ed Burtynsky and Chilean artist Ignacio Acosta.
Our exhibition features an installation created for the MBAL based on our book “Into Mountains”. This book focuses on the rituals people practiced at the time of the Chinese Jin Dynasty (265–419 BC) before venturing to the mountains. Between tradition, deities, and protective signs, it shows the evolution of our relationship with nature, once threatening and feared, now merely an exploited and discredited resource.
In light of the climate change our world is currently experiencing, the extent of which we are not yet aware, the duo Bienvenue Studios – consisting of Xiaoqun Wu and Oliver Hischier – offers an exploration of the evolution of the relationship between man and nature in words and images. As the winner of the MBAL’s 2021 Young Artist Award presented as part of the Triennial of Contemporary Printmaking, Bienvenue Studios presents a previously unpublished installation created for the MBAL, which grew out of its second artist book titled Into Mountains. This young artist duo, unanimously selected by a jury of professionals, explores the rituals practiced by man at the time of the Chinese Jin Dynasty (265-419 CE) before venturing to the peaks.
The need to protect oneself with amulets, mirrors and other rites, expressing respect and humility towards nature, testifies to an attitude that today seems outdated. Indeed, the mountain world, once perceived as threatening and feared, is now considered a mere usable resource, the conquest of which is accessible to a broad mass. With Into Mountains: Wear Your Mirror, Bienvenue Studios prompts us to reconsider our relationship with nature and strive for a balanced relationship with the world that surrounds us. Indeed, this installation mixes images of mountains, animals and protective signs, as well as representations of dangerous creatures whose shape is revealed through a mirror. While 1600 years ago man feared the demons inherent in nature, today he has in fact become a demon to nature himself. By highlighting both the terrifying power and the beauty of nature, Bienvenue Studios’ installation participates in its own way in raising individual and collective awareness of the need to relearn how to live in harmony with nature, to appreciate and protect it before it is too late.
«Into Mountains: Wear Your Mirror» Vernissage
