Artworks

“Anima” is a Latin word meaning soul and breath. It evokes both inner dialogue and imagination. By making her works float in space, Mauren Brodbeck plunges us into the heart of nature through her filter –her palette of colours, modified images, and an unusual sound environment. By creating such a singular visual and sound space, the artist invites the public to enter a garden that evokes a dream landscape rather than a realistic documentation of nature. With Anima, Brodbeck explores materials, colours, textures and sounds, both in the image and sound. The plant world is put into a vibratory state, because it must appeal to our senses and emotions. The artist’s visual and sound variations can be developed endlessly. By moving away from a traditional representation of nature, she invites us to enter into a relationship with a different type of plant environment. Through this immersive space, the artist encourages each of us to let our intuition carry us along. If Brodbeck disturbs what we know of nature, it is because she seeks to create a connection with the invisible, or rather the intangible. Anima takes us beyond the surface of the plant world – a surface that has literally been digitally transformed. Capturing sounds during the creative process is essential for Mauren Brodbeck: scratching photographs or physical contact with the plants contributes to the exploration of the material. The exhibition space thus constitutes an environment where the soundscape echoes the visual landscape, and vice versa. As you walk through this space, you are invited to listen to your own feelings. Conceived as a garden suspended in time and space, Brodbeck’s work refers to the traditional symbolism of the garden: between contemplation and pleasure, it is also a sacred space and a possibility to reconnect with an intimate world. With this installation, Brodbeck reinterprets a common experience: the walk in nature. Her garden sparkles to better address our emotions and sensibilities. Finally, Anima is also an exploration of the “Anima Mundi”: described by philosophers as the soul of the world, it consists of seeing nature as a living being, or rather a divine essence that encompasses and energises every life in the universe.

Nathalie Herschorfer, director of the Musée des Beaux-Arts Le Locle