Cartographie Ephemere

The Bois de Vincennes is the largest green space in the city of Paris. In 1852, Napoleon transformed it into a park and changed the appearance of the forest in the eastern part of the French capital. The predominantly tree-covered vegetation was planted around the city, placing these huge tree complexes all along the eastern part of the 12th arrondissement. In 1934, at the very heart of the park stands Le Grand Rocher, a 65-metre high hollow artificial rock, which was created for one of the many international exhibitions that sought to showcase the cultural richness of the French colonial empire. The peculiarity of the rock is to shelter its infinite unexplored interior, a territory that man cannot tread. In this project, Le Bois de Vincennes and Le Grand Rocher dialogue until they meet in the same physical space, the aim of which is to establish a visual reflection that shows how the passage of time can construct an ephemeral cartography, of an alterable nature, given that nature is, per se, changeable. The aim of carrying out a documentation work that records the memory of this place results in a heterogeneous but continuous portrait of the forest, which at the same time includes a multi-layered introspection on the memory of the forest.

All this research is recorded in the book Cartographie Éphémère, which has just been published by Ediciones Posibles, after receiving a publishing grant from the Government of Navarre and the Huarte contemporary art centre.