Invited by Domaine de Boisbuchet, with the support of the Institut Français,
Jean-Baptiste Durand transforms a room at BASE into an immersive experience titled Bittersweet Symphony. The installation reflects a paradox at the core of the designer’s practice: the desire to seek and create pleasure within a world in decline. It explores new aesthetics while embracing the act of creation in a context marked by collapse—amid strained democracies, armed conflicts, health crises, and climate change.
The installation takes the form of a post-apocalyptic listening room. The atmosphere is desolate: only a few artifacts remain, suggesting an enigmatic presence. Speakers emit sound across this barren landscape, embedded in the ground and positioned in front of construction tarps bearing a text in Ancient Greek.
Details such as iconographic fragments and remnants of ritual objects allude to the existence of an unknown and unsettling liturgy. In Bittersweet Symphony, Jean-Baptiste Durand unveils new pieces that compose a universe held in tension.
For this occasion, Jean-Baptiste Durand incorporates works by Noémie Couronné, alongside contributions from Infrarouge and CesXcommercial.
IN COLLABORATION WITH
Domaine de Boisbuchet
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
Institut Français