Pierre HUYGHE, "After UUmwelt"

Pierre HUYGHE, "After UUmwelt".

Pierre HUYGHE, "After UUmwelt".

Pierre HUYGHE, "After UUmwelt".

Pierre HUYGHE, After UUmwelt

📍La Grande Halle, Fondation Luma, Arles

▪️ Installation by iDzia: LED screens, video server, sound, sensors

Pierre HUYGHE, "After UUmwelt"

Pierre Huyghe, an artist renowned for exploring the relationships between humans, nature, and technology, transformed the La Grande Halle at the Fondation Luma into a true sensory laboratory. His installation After UUmwelt immerses viewers in a universe where human and artificial imagination interact with biological and technological entities. Through this immersive experience, Huyghe confronts the audience with a world in constant evolution, populated by cells, viral forms, and biological and technological processes, blending to create a dynamic environment.

The artwork takes its name from the concept of "umwelt," a biological term referring to the world as perceived by an organism — its unique sensory experience of the environment. By adding the prefix "U" to this term, Huyghe suggests an amplification of this perception, transformed and altered by technological and biological elements, offering a new and disorienting view of our surroundings. The installation highlights how human and non-human environments can be interconnected through biological and artificial systems.

After UUmwelt deploys a series of interactive devices that actively engage the viewer's senses. LED screens, video servers, a specially designed sound system, and sensors act as dynamic interfaces that respond to movement and human interaction. The installation becomes a living space, an organism in itself, where the artist creates a dialogue between humans and machines, nature and technology.

Visitors are invited to experience this environment as a fluid, transitional space where the boundaries between different forms of life and technology blur. Every element of the installation, whether biological or digital, contributes to this unique sensory experience, blurring the lines between the natural and the artificial. The entire setup creates a one-of-a-kind atmosphere, almost futuristic, where mutations are visible and tangible, offering a glimpse into another world, both fascinating and unsettling.

This exhibition, presented from June 26, 2021, to February 9, 2022, prompted reflection on the evolving relationships between humans, technology, and life itself. Pierre Huyghe thus invites us to reconsider our perceptions and interactions with the world around us through an unprecedented immersive and multisensory experience.

@luma_arles // @idzia_audiovisuel