An undulating landscape made of 65,000 discarded CDs carpets the floor of the Centquatre art space, housed in a former funeral home in Paris.
The collected CDs were sewn together with wire then draped over inflatable mounds.
Called WasteLandscape, the installation by architect Clémence Eliard and artist Elise Morin remains in place until 10 September when it will tour other locations.
The CDs will eventually be recycled.
London designer Bruce Munro laid out 600,000 CDs on the grass in a Wiltshire field in the UK last year - see our earlier story here.
Photographs Yannick Fradin, Martin Eliard and Marc Sirvin.
Here are some more details from Morin and Eliard:
WasteLandscape, A project by Elise Morin and Clémence Eliard
Waste Landscape is a monumental art work that takes up the "Halle d'Aubervilliers" 1000square meters in the CENTQUATRE, from the 21st of July to the 10th of september in Paris. “WasteLandscape” is a 500 square meters artificial undulating landscape covered by an armor of 65,000 unsold or collected CDs, which have been sorted and hand-sewn.
It is well known that CDs are condemned to gradually disappear from our daily life, and to later participate in the construction of immense open-air, floating or buried toxic waste reception centers. Made of petroleum, this reflecting slick of CDs forms a still sea of metallic dunes: the art work's monumental scale reveals the precious aspect of a small daily object. The project joins a global, innovative and committed approach, from its means of production until the end of its “life”.
WasteLandscape will be displayed in locations coherent with the stakes of the project: art role in society, raising consciousness to environmental problems through culture, alternative mode of production and valuation of district associative work and professional rehabilitation.
Over the course of multiple exhibitions, WasteLandscape will go through quite a few transformations before being entirely recycled into polycarbonate. The roaming will allow both artists to pursue new awareness-raising activities.
Clémence Eliard is an architect and Elise Morin is an artist, they work together since 2009. Waste landscape is at the crossroad of contemporary art, landscaping and environmental concerns. The installation has been developped by Elise Morin and Clemence Eliard in collaboration with the 104. The building has been refurbished by atelier Novembre: Marc Iseppi & Jacques Pajot.
Free entrance
materials: unsold CD+wire+inflatable
Surface : 500 m²
Photographs: Yannick Fradin, Martin Eliard, Marc Sirvin
Beautiful, been wondering for a while how to use cd media into craft or art, this is cool.
Is it waste when a CD has not yet been sold? Where they blank CD's or with some music on it? Could be nice if people could afterwards take the presumed audio CD's and play them at home, not turning them into waste or recycle them (using lots of energy and resources to do so) but use them where they're originally intended for…
If they will be touring in other locations they really should come to Malta for a while…you don't know what difference it will make, as we're not a the forefront in design and innovation.
Old CDs are strangely magical. The Chelsea Market in NYC did Christmas trees from CD shards last year http://sarahspitz.tumblr.com/post/272598043/chris…
Beautiful piece. The space is fantastic and significantly so because it is a cultural space in a (relatively) poor and ethnically diverse part of Paris. To correct the caption: it was the city's public morgue (an industrial building) not a funeral home.
H-J dude, read the article. Unwanted CDs were donated by people.
Seungho Lee, re read it too. Besides the collected CDs, there are also unsold ones…
This is very, very, very good.
Actually the opposite of Matta Clarks stuff
in the US in the 70′s. Instead of destroying
landscape, it creates it from objects trouve.
Thing works at all scales, has meanings
symbolic and compositional.
A morgue?! Wow.
Congrats!
What a magical installation. It looks a lots like a sleeping dragon covered in iridescent scales. And what a brilliant concept all around aesthetically, socially and politically in terms of being able to make people more aware of sustainability issues … and what an uncannily appropriate location! Wish I could be there to see it in person!
I think they should had taken more advantage of the 104's huge volume.
Lets all use old CD's to reflect light away from the roofs of buildings in this manner, in sunny climates, thusly keeping cooling costs down while making our roofs look ultimately kick-ass. Deal.