The project Across Bridges is the result of a collaboration between visual artist Antonin Detemple and architect and photographer Jénia Raït, combining their shared interests and expertise. It features a dynamic installation made from bio-composite materials derived from mycelium (the vegetative part of fungi) and modular structures previously used to build a bridge. The project interrogates the urban material of concrete while exploring mycelium as a symbiotic and alternative response.
The project began in spring 2022, when Detemple encountered large wooden structures at a construction site in Porte de la Chapelle, Paris. These were molds for concrete pillars in a bridge for the CDG Express project, aimed at improving transportation between Gare de l’Est and Charles-de-Gaulle Airport. The wooden molds, with their dynamic curves and temporary function, represent the voids and residues of urban construction. Detemple salvaged around 17 pieces of these molds, preserving their forms and histories, and they now form the core of Across Bridges, reflecting on the transformation of our relationship with urban space.
Antonin Detemple
Since 2020, Antonin Detemple’s work has centered on exploring the human relationship with the environment, with a focus on plants. He has investigated various topics, including the industrial flower trade, the development of botanical gardens, the transition from primary forests to monocultures, and seed preservation at the Global Seed Vault. Through these studies, Detemple examines the histories of capitalism, religion, science, and the Anthropocene, reflecting on the current sixth mass extinction. His installations and sculptures highlight the political and poetic aspects of human interactions with non-human entities, aiming to underscore the complexity and fragility of life and reconcile human activities with the natural world.
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