From thousands of years ago through the rise of agriculture at the Neolithic period and biotechnologies today, seeds speak of the evolution of our social, scientific, and cultural practices. Thus, it is the history of these "great travellers" that is at the heart of the exhibition of Thierry Ardouin’s photographic portraits, curated by Nathalie Chapuis. They will both share some of these stories, explain the singular artistic approach and scientific protocol, as well as how this ten-year collaborative project, combining photography and science, became a book and exhibition conceived by Atelier EXB.
Co-founder of Tendance Floue collective, Thierry Ardouin works on the links between man and his environment. For this project, the French photographer worked on the infinitely small with scientific equipment. His portraits of seeds reveal their fascinating formal diversity and beauty, drawing the history of these "great travellers". Wild or cultivated from different species all over the world, most of these seeds come from the collections of the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris. Chosen, lit and framed with the greatest care, these portraits disturb our subjectivity as viewers : they become symbols which, far from being generic images, question our perceptions and our relationship to origin. From the emergence of agriculture more than 10,000 years ago to the questions raised by today’s hybrid seeds, via the discovery of the uses of seeds across cultures and eras, Seed stories explores the challenges of diversity.
Nathalie Chapuis (Curator/ Atelier EXB)
Holder of a PhD in art history, Nathalie Chapuis is co-director of the French publishing house Atelier EXB, following a decade-long collaboration with founder Xavier Barral. She has published numerous books with photographic institutions from over the world, including the Centre Pompidou, Le Bal and the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, in Paris, as well as the Fotomuseum Rotterdam and MASS MoCA Los Angeles. Recent publications include Sophie Calle's Picalso (co-published with the Picasso Museum, Paris), Marina Gadonneix's Laboratories / Observatories (co-published with the Centre Pompidou, Paris), Lukas Hoffmann's Strassenbilder and Seed Stories (co-published with the National Museum of Natural History, Paris). She has curated Petit précipité subjectif d'une histoire des graines, presented at the Centquatre art center in Paris (2022), and co-curated the traveling exhibition inspired by the book collection Des Oiseaux (Toulouse, Brussels, Landskrona and Breda).
