Wild Diplomacy

Wild Diplomacy brings together four artistic practices that forge intimate links with the surrounding environment. Each new commission may incite a call to action, set into motion natural processes or encourage forms of listening, collaboration and kinship between species and materials. Working across different temporalities and technologies – from the deep time of geology to the generative capacities of AI – the works on view seek to negotiate new forms of alliance with the more-than-human world.

Suzanne Husky, Ilanit Illouz, Natsuko Uchino and the duo Ittah Yoda (Virgile Ittah and Kai Yoda) each occupy a distinct space within the Centre International d’Art et du Paysage (CIAPV), unfolding a series of artistic speculations that foreground our interconnected existence.

Suzanne Husky presents watercolours and film from her ongoing investigation of beavers and their role in shaping the environment. Often described as keystone species, beavers are essential to the healthy functioning of an ecosystem and enable other species to survive. Husky’s works address the centuries-long transformation of rivers and wetlands by humans that has led to desiccated landscapes, as well as their potential regeneration in collaboration with beavers. Part educational tool, part call to action, the works spur the reintroduction of beavers as a necessary, urgent response to an unfolding catastrophe. 

Ilanit Illouz’s photographic project, Les Dolines (sinkholes), emerged through the artist’s documentation of the Wadi Qelt valley in the Judean Desert, which flows into the Dead Sea. Black and white prints are treated with salt taken from the site, creating crystalized photographs that confuse any sense of scale and alter our perception of the depicted landscapes. The photographic support thus becomes a means to convey a much deeper subject – the swift evaporation of the Dead Sea and the erosion of its shores due to resource extraction and water diversion. At the CIAPV, the artist expands her experimental process for the first time through volume, creating the installation Évaporites (2023).

Natsuko Uchino’s work explores points of intersection between art, ecology and agricultural practices as well as collaborative relationships between species. Her installation Aldo Api Abri (2023) grapples with the ancient relationship between humans and bees, proposing a series of beehives whose architecture aligns more closely with the insects’ behaviour in the wild. The intended goal of the hives is not to produce honey but to welcome bees their own terms, a form of hospitality that can help mitigate the decline of bee species. The installation is completed with a selection of archival images of beehives chosen in collaboration with visual anthropologist and artist Aladin Borioli. A sound component by musician Marceau Portron permeates the exhibition space with a reverberating drone sound, evoking the collective hum of a bee colony.

Ittah Yoda’s work has been described as an ecosystem, one in constant mutation. Their collaborative practice, which often invites contributions from others, generates a multitude of hybrid forms that arise through digital operations as much as explorations of physical sites and materials. The outcome includes painting, sculpture and installation along with virtual reality environments that underline our kinship with other species and forms of intelligence. Never the Same Ocean (2023) is an immersive installation that combines mineral and vegetal elements with non-human lifeforms and a multitude of sensorial components.

Current ecological discourse has done much to shape our perception of the world as well as the relationship between modern civilisation and environmental crises, encouraging us to think of our existence as in continuity with rather than dominating our surroundings. Taken as a whole, Wild Diplomacy is intended not as exhaustive or definitive but as a series of proposals that accentuate our connectedness and the potential for generative collaborations across species, space and time.

The exhibition is curated by Alexandra McIntosh, director, CIAPV.

Ittah Yoda’s project is presented with in partnership with the Galerie Poggi, Paris, and with the support of the Fondation d’entreprise Martell, Cognac, and the Fondation des artistes.

About the Centre International d’Art et du Paysage
Unique within the French artistic landscape, the Centre International d’Art et du Paysage on Vassivière Island (CIAPV) is celebrated for its remarkable architecture designed by Aldo Rossi and Xavier Fabre, its open-air permanent collection, and its program of exhibitions, residencies and events exploring contemporary art and landscape. Situated on the Plateau de Millevaches in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, the CIAPV is firmly rooted in its rural context while forging links nationally and internationally.

The CIAPV is supported by the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine and the French Ministry of Culture—DRAC Nouvelle-Aquitaine.