Since the start of his career, Mathieu Mercier has been reflecting on the definition of the place of the object, both in the consumer industry and in the field of art. His research results in a permanent questioning of the symbolic and utilitarian functions of objects.

Mathieu Mercier initiated in 2012 an event entitled “Commission for a tree” for which artists, architects and designers are invited to design nesting boxes. This form of free expression is a unique and uninhibited way of diverting this artificial shelter with humor and poetry, aesthetics and lightness.

This is how GabrielJones, one of the artists invited to the first edition, wrote: “The participation of these artists has given rise to pieces that are both playful, intriguing, reets of their work or their personality, each in its own way having appropriated the idea of "Nest", alternately perch, manger, swimming pool, scarecrow ... The reading of the proposed forms has given rise to the emergence of works related to Pop art, Minimalism, Expressionism in a spontaneous way, without grip for a debate. The uninhibited relationship of the artists results in a light and festive act (...) ”

For this fourth edition, a corpus of nearly 90 nesting boxes is presented jointly at the Botanical Garden of Bordeaux, a green space in the heart of the city, and in the Place du Parlement display case as part of the Crystal Palace artistic dissemination program.

A selection of around ten birdhouses by artists, designers and architects: David Ancelin, Philippe Cazal, Anne Colomes, Pierre Descamps, Ligia Dias, Noël Dolla, Elisa Fantozzi, Didier Faustino, Lina Jabbour and Guillaume Stagnaro, Olivier Leroi, Nadia Lichtig, Cyrille Martin, Benoît Pype, Hugues Reip, Christoph Rothmeier, Kristina Solomoukha and Paolo Codeluppi, Mathias Tujague, Amy Williams

Limelight partnership