Erosion2014 - 2017

blown cristal in an ice-mold, installation

Sylvie de Meurville, curator:

Mathilde Caylou chose a roc in the Vosges: the sandstone which used to carry a glacier; she molded it and then molded the mold to be able to poor water in it and create its replica in ice. she has blown crystal in this mold that is shaped like a little hollow stone. The thermic shock she provoked through the contact of the glass in fusion with the ice at around 1100°C (2012 Fahrenheit) is spectacular, as the video shows. The pieces that were created one after the other until the mold was completely destroyed, bear the trace of this violence which links with the telluric quality of the original roc. The ice and the glass tear one another apart in different ways, but only the crystal can materialize the memory of their fight; the memory of the ice fades away quickly, and needs to be recorded on video to be preserved. The artist breathed life into the original encounter between the elements, the traces of which draw the landscape of the Vosges Mountains.