Retour aux Sources

Maison Ruinart · an artwork by Mouawad + Laurier · 2019-2029 · Maison Ruinart, Reims, UNESCO World Heritage

Our role Concept, sculpture, kinetics, generative music, light and LEDs, real-time software, installation, maintenance.

A root planted in a chalk cellar dug more than two thousand years ago, thirty metres underground. In that mineral darkness, it listens to the living world breathing at the surface.

In real time, the root captures the climate data that makes champagne, temperature, humidity, rainfall and wind, and translates these variations into generative music and light. It moves with the seasons and the cycle of the vine. Inspired by Stefano Mancuso’s work on plant intelligence, it reminds us that 90% of the Earth’s biomass is made of plants.

Two years of work, from concept to finished piece: the dramaturgy, the steel sculpture and its blown-glass lamps, the kinetics, the generative music, the light and the brain that ties it all to weather data. An installation built to run on its own, every day, for ten years: it starts, monitors itself and restarts without anyone on site.

First “carte blanche” commission of the countdown to Maison Ruinart’s tricentenary in 2029. Permanent installation in the chalk cellars since September 2019, seen by around 26,000 visitors a year. Every piece of glass was hand-blown by master glassmaker Marco Nason during a residency at the NasonMoretti glassworks in Murano. The whole electronic system of the lamps was invented and designed by us.

Credits

Artists Mouawad + Laurier
Production Frédéric Dufour (Ruinart)
Curator Benoît Baume (Fisheye)
Coordination Laura Duponchel
Data Caroline Fiot
Development Hand Coded: project management Maya Benaïnous and Stéphanie Huerre, Ledotron Maya Benaïnous and Joan Sandoval, AI Cyril Laurier
Lamps Salvador Mauri (Sakma)
Kinetics Mecaoctet: Julien Bodart, Philippe Ducouret, Louis Perrin, Philippe Resch
Blown glass Marco Nason, NasonMoretti, Murano
Ironwork Ferronnerie Mazingue, Reims
Photos Guillaume Faure
Video Easy Barcelona
360° video Raphaël Haddad, thanks to Laetitia Moreau

Press

“This unfolding root is in fact a monumental sculpture by the artists Mouawad Laurier. Driven by a mechanism, it moves to the rhythm of the seasons and the cycle of the vine. The work is alive.” Thibaut Wychowanok, Numéro, 2019
“An unusual creation that also sets off a highly symbolic countdown. It reminds us that human beings and nature are intrinsically connected.” Journal du Luxe, 2020
“This sensitive root structure expresses the changes in seasons, climate, wind and temperature. This space is about feeling that mutual dependence.” Berlin Art Link, 2019
“Two years in the making, Retour aux Sources is an immersive visual and sound installation by the French artistic duo whose oeuvre tackles questions of sustainability.” Portfolio Magazine, 2019
“Endowed with sensitive intelligence evolving in a century-old chalk cellar 30 meters below ground, the root listens to the natural and human elements necessary to the champagne production process happening above.” Quill & Pad, 2019
L’Officiel Art, “Ruinart Conscious Wonderland”, 2020
LVMH annual report 2019
Zeitgeist19 podcast, interview with Mouawad + Laurier
“French artists Maya Mouawad and Cyril Laurier create technology-driven artworks championing sustainability.” Y-Jean Mun-Delsalle, Forbes, 2020
“This immersive project marks a commitment to nature.” Nowness, 2020
Beaux Arts Magazine, video “Retour aux Sources at Maison Ruinart”
Art of Change 21, “Retour aux Sources, artificial intelligence and nature”

Testimonials

“This work took us out of time and away from the tumult outside, bravo for this moment of poetry.” Marie Drucker
“Thanks to you we lived an unforgettable moment! Your work is magnificent, moving, spectacular, exactly right.” Céline Berthoumieux, president of HACNUM