With students from the High School of Woodworking and Eco-Construction in Envermeu (Seine-Maritime).
Winter 2020.
A graphic designer, illustrator, and publisher, Damien Poulain also works with painting and installation art. The artist was invited to guide the students’ learning—specifically in wood construction and spatial design—toward the creation of a viewing device, a sort of picture box.
The project aims to encourage students to take a fresh look at their immediate surroundings and the school grounds by creating visual devices. These objects, each unique, take the form of portable installations in their final version, featuring a sculptural design conceived by groups of students and inspired by a poetic and fantastical interpretation of the surrounding landscape. When held up to the eye, the object reveals a photographic dimension to the viewer, with the landscape projected onto its surface—a simple application of the camera obscura.
Photographs were taken by Fred Margueron, a photographer from Rouen, to showcase the students’ and the artist-in-residence’s creations within the landscape surrounding the high school. The exhibition featured large prints from these photographs alongside the installations themselves.
Dans le cadre du dispositif “Jumelages” financé par la Direction Régionale des Affaires Culturelles de Normandie et la Direction Régionale de l’Alimentation, de l’Agriculture et de la Forêt.
