Freshwater – Alexia Chevrollier

Freshwater is a sculptural installation composed of five panels of raw steel and a cast glass sculpture. It is an ode to time, crystallized by the image of water. Appreciated for its plural forms and strong symbolic dimension, water seems to represent different temporalities, from the past to the future, passing through the present. Metaphor of an elusive time, water is a substance that eludes us and produces the event. It traverses eras without ever freezing while being the passing witness of a bygone history. Today, it has also become a major issue for the future of our societies. Here, Alexia Chevrollier invites us to reflect on the notion of value: the value of time passing, the value of dwindling water, and the value of the artwork. Through this project, she aims to question the socio-economic realities of the contemporary world and invites us to act on our tomorrows. The evocation of water materializes in all its states: gaseous, solid, and liquid.

Gaseous because the pristine steel is empirically programmed to gradually change its physiognomy due to rust that will form on it during the exhibition. This transformation is made possible thanks to the water content of the soil on which the sculpture will rest. By evaporating from the soil, water attacks the steel, thus drawing a landscape with spectral overtones. Solid because the glass resting on the steel panels is a sort of liquid, translucent, colorless, irregular, and appears to be frozen. An attempt to give form to the elusive or a real freeze-frame of a waterfall? Liquid by the water of the hortillonnages surrounding the gardens, which allows the spectators to come face to face with the work.

Initially brutal and frozen, this installation will reveal its full potential during the exhibition. Here, the process, the becoming, and the backstage form the work. The notions of flow and time are central to my practice and are at the heart of this project.