From stage 1(0) on, the Lab initiates a new cycle, widening the scope of its research field in such a way as to include the organic bonds that connect man with cosmos. Issues raised by the Anthropocena are indeed a strong incentive for man to acknowledge its relative position within the life chain. The dramatic, now unquestionable, shifts in biology, geology and climate, combined with the outcome of recent scientific studies, all point to the necessity of reconstructing a human, and a non-human, world. This growing awareness induces fundamental changes in our relationship to the world: the dual principles behind the Western approach –which consists in tearing man apart from nature, and opposing matter and mind–, give way to a cosmologic pattern, a vision of the world that is no longer anthropomorphic but “cosmomorphic”. Recent scientific developments (in neurosciences, in astrophysics, in biology, in geology) prompt us to re-examine the boundaries between body, space, time, and brain, and to “broaden” our perception of the environment, somewhere between the infinitely large and the infinitely small. The new lines of research developed by scientists contribute to the present renewal of interest in the bonds connecting us with Earth, the recreation of the ties between matter and life, and the inscription of man within cosmos. After the experiments in “enlarged perception”, we are now led to experience even more intense ones, such as the vital fusion with the elements, the yearning for oneness with the Universe. In the wake of new research on the life chain –as for instance in epigenetics, where the environmental impact on the genome has been measured over several generations, or in astrology, where common ground between Mars and the Earth has been searched for within the scale of the infinitely small- we are inclined to think in terms of coexistence and dynamic links.

From such a transitive, relational approach may emerge the fundamental notions of milieu, passage and motion. A unified apprehension of cosmos arises, after the fashion of Oriental conceptions, deprived of any form of cleavage.

How can creation and research contribute today to this change in paradigm and establish a new way of looking at the world? Could a common responsibility, shared by artists, scientists and intellectuals, pave the way for alternative action?

Nathalie Ergino

Hamish Fulton, Kutenai, Two Walks in the Alberta Rockies, 74 and 70 Miles, Canada, Summer 1976, 1976.
2 silver-gelatin prints on fiber paper mounted on panel, 82 x 171 x 2,2 cm.
André Morin © Hamish Fulton

Hicham Berrada, Présage, 2016.
Beaker, chemicals, camera and live screening.
Courtesy Galerie Kamel Mennour and the artist © Laurent Lecat

Linda Sanchez, 11752 mètres et des poussières..., 2014.
Blu-Ray film, 71 minutes.
Courtesy the artist © Linda Sanchez

Pierre Huyghe, Cerro Indio Muerto, 2016.
C-print, 96 cm x 64 cm.
Courtesy the artist and Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris.

Charwei Tsai, Plane Tree Mantra, 2014.
Performance.
Collection 49 Nord 6 Est – Frac Lorraine, Metz (FR) © Charwei Tsai

Michel Blazy, Spirale, 1996.
Installation, sprouted seeds (lentils, cotton wool). Dimensions variables.
Collection Frac Provence-Alpes Côte d’Azur. Photo © Blaise Adilon.

James Lee Byars, The Book of the Hundred Questions, 1969.
Offset lithograph in gold ink and black Japanese paper, 49 x 36,5 cm.
Courtesy Jason Dodge. Photo © Blaise Adilon

Hubert Duprat, Sans titre, 2008
Pile of polished magnetite stones. Height: 85 cm, diameter: 280 cm.
Courtesy the artist and Galerie Art : Concept, Paris. Photo © Blaise Adilon

Groupe FRAME (Alys Demeure, Jérôme Grivel, Héloïse Lauraire, Sandra Lorenzi, Stéphanie Raimondi), INDEX, 2016. 
Inkjet printings, wood table: 520 x 70 x 300 cm. 
Courtesy Groupe FRAME (Alys Demeure, Jérôme Grivel, Héloïse Lauraire, Sandra Lorenzi, Stéphanie Raimondi). Photo © Blaise Adilon

Célia Gondol, Dimensions telluriques, 2016. 
Silk, copper. 580 x 350 cm. 
Courtesy the artist. Work produced as part of the Fondation d'entreprise Hermes residency program. Photo © Blaise Adilon

Joan Jonas, Wind, 1968 
Black & white film, 5’41’’, silent.
Collection 49 Nord 6 Est – Frac Lorraine, Metz

Barbara & Michael Leisgen, Das Licht - der Mensch - die Welt, 1975 
Black and white photograph mounted on Dibond, acrylic panel, 80 x 120 cm. 
Collection 49 Nord 6 Est – Frac Lorraine, Metz

Matt Mullican, The IAC Mural, 2010.
Wall painting.
Collection Institut d'art contemporain Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alpes. Photo © Blaise Adilon.

Otobong Nkanga, Alterscape, 2005.
Set of 3 C-print photographs mounted on Dibond, 50 x 67 cm each. 
Collection Frac Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. Photo © Blaise Adilon

Abraham Poincheval, Avant projet pour marcher sur la canopée nuageuse, 2016 
Chalk drawing on hexagonal black panels. 
Courtesy Semiose galerie, Paris. Photo © Blaise Adilon

Evariste Richer, Ellipse/Eclipse, 2007. 

Reflector made of reversible gold and silver lastolite, aluminium frames, matthews tripods, diameter : 300 cm each.
Courtesy the artist and Untilthen - Saint-Ouen. Photo © Blaise Adilon.

Takis, Electromagnétique III, 1966. 
Plexiglas, electro-magnet, cork, cable, 336 x 75 x 75 cm. 
Collection Frac des Pays de la Loire. Photo © Blaise Adilon.

Maarten Vanden Eynde, Restauration du Lac de Montbel, 2003 
Digital print 70 x 50 cm. 
Collection 49 Nord 6 Est – Frac Lorraine, Metz © Maarten Vanden Eynde