This work, created by Céleste Boursier-Mougenot and curated by Emma Lavigne, seeks to transform the Rotunda into a dreamlike space, where an 18-meter-diameter pool filled with water reflects the sky seen through the museum's dome. White ceramic bowls of different sizes have also been placed within it, resembling water lilies or stones protruding from the water. White ceramic bowls float on this blue surface, generating melodious and enchanting sounds as a gentle current propels them.
This unusual use of the bowls, along with the large pool, creates an image that may seem familiar to the visitor, relatively similar to that of a tranquil pond hidden in any corner of a forest. The artist taps into this collective imagination to create a similar space, yet distinctive enough to situate itself in a limbo between the known and the unknown, creating an ideal environment for introspection.
Clinamen by Céleste Boursier-Mougenot. Photograph courtesy of Bourse de Commerce—Pinault Collection.
Another highlight is the striking contrast the work creates with the space in which it is located. It is quite unusual to find a pond under the dome of a 17th-century building. Confusion and astonishment are the visitor's first reaction upon entering the room, which contributes to the development of the aforementioned atmosphere.
The bowls are also carried by a gentle current of water, generating different harmonious sounds that do not require the participation of a performer. These sounds constitute the main element of the intervention and generate an immersive environment that encourages reflection.
This work seeks to be part of a tradition in which sound becomes a living material, representing a break with the established general conception of music, and in which the visitor is invited to actively participate in the experience.
Clinamen by Céleste Boursier-Mougenot. Photograph courtesy of Bourse de Commerce—Pinault Collection.
The title "clinamen" comes from Epicurean physics and refers to the random movement of atoms, a concept that resonates with the inevitably changing and unpredictable nature of the work. Each moment of the installation is unique, offering a constantly evolving sensory and temporal experience.
Exploring the idea of the boundaries between art and the everyday, the artist presents visitors with an unusual situation in which, through everyday elements, they create something unprecedented: a symphony generated by porcelain bowls that have little or nothing to do with traditional musical instruments.
In this way, the Bourse de Comércio becomes a space where one can immerse oneself in listening and dreaming, providing a unique experience for each visitor, inviting them to explore their own relationship with time and sound. With this installation, Céleste Boursier-Mougenot initiates a subtle dialogue between matter, architecture, and human presence. She creates an environment in which art is an experience both individual and collective.
Clinamen by Céleste Boursier-Mougenot. Photograph courtesy of Bourse de Commerce—Pinault Collection.
The concentric vibrations generated on this large blue surface evoke the desire to capture infinity within the enclosed space of the canvas, a concept explored by various artists such as Miró in his Blue trilogy, Mark Rothko when he captured silence through his atmospheric glazes, and Monet when he imbued a sense of infinity to a fragment of a pond dotted with white water lilies. This work, however, does not have a pre-existing pictorial intention, but is the culmination of a compositional process that, in and of itself, generates the form.
This way of conceiving art has a clear relationship with the détournement aesthetic inherited from Dadaism and Fluxus. Sound-wise, it is also inspired by the DIY spirit that permeates the entire New York music scene, from punk to experimental music.
Clinamen by Céleste Boursier-Mougenot. Photograph courtesy of Bourse de Commerce—Pinault Collection.
It is through all these concepts and the reconfiguration of objects to transform their function into one that is not the usual that the artist manages to generate a multisensory experience never seen before, also possessing a strong symbolic charge.
