TEVA

Nests, burrows and other shelters

Teva and cheeps at Meyrin's Botanical garden (photo by Laurent Barlier)
Teva and cheeps at Meyrin's Botanical garden (photo by Laurent Barlier)

Birds, squirrels and even fish do not expect man to provide them with shelter. In a botanical surplus park, we talk to plants to talk to people. So I ask, do plants have nests, burrows or shelters? No. I ask for the man what is the nest, burrow or shelter?

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Teva | 2017 | Installation au Jardin Botanique Alpin de la ville de Meyrin, Suisse

I think I’ve already answered the question about the nest, but perhaps I could add that it’s the place where the illusion of rest is created, it’s in front of you or behind you, always transitory, and it’s defined by the need to leave it.

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Teva | 2017 | Acier, plexi, nid et plumes | pièce unique | 120 x 400 x 100 cm
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Plumes et branches

The burrow seems to be a place of waiting; it is undoubtedly the cocoon without the protective idea. It allows the seasons to pass in torpor and oblivion. The burrow cuts the person who takes refuge there off from the world, creating a world of its own.

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Teva | 2017 | plexi, nid et plumes
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Teva | 2017 | nid et plumes |
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2017

The shelter itself is only transitory, and even if the other places in the project are transitory too, the shelter speaks of the dangers from which those who benefit from it escape.

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Teva | 2017 | Installation au Jardin Botanique Alpin de la ville de Meyrin, Suisse
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Teva | 2017 | Installation au Jardin Botanique Alpin de la ville de Meyrin, Suisse
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Plumes et branches

It would be a boat-roof where everything is reflected, above all our projections. The only living thing would be the burrow cocoon inside, a space for maturation and growth, the matrix of what is going to hatch, also coming to life in death.
A boat of transition, of movement, which the nest and the shelter, the burrow itself, prevent. An intimate transition. And through the bull’s-eye this is what we can see. The inner movement.
And this roof, toppled by the storm and the uncertain times that alone drive us to change, would lie there, lost in the earth. Immobile in its turn.

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Plumes et branches
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Teva | 2017 | Pré-Installation
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Teva | 2017 | Installation au Jardin Botanique Alpin de la ville de Meyrin, Suisse

To be safe from rain, safe from danger, safe from love, to be safe from and escape the real world.
What is real? Does an umbrella protect you from reality, or is a house a shelter? Can a man on the run find a nest?

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Teva | 2017 | Installation au Jardin Botanique Alpin de la ville de Meyrin, Suisse
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2017 | Nature
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Teva | 2017 | Acier, plexi, nid et plumes | pièce unique | 120 x 400 x 100 cm

The boat as a projection of the nest, the idea of Noah’s ark carrying on board all species but only in pairs, ideals and illusions. An ark stranded after the flood, obviously referring to all urgent and desperate migrations. A promise of a roof, a nest to be rebuilt, and the fragility of the boat as well as the dream.