To make ‘Rêve Topiaire’, the work presented in this exhibition, Musa paradisica recorded conversations with a number professionals operating in and around Nantes in various fields—including a businesswoman, a knife maker, a fortune-teller, and a brewer—selected with the assistance of the Frac des Pays de La Loire’s staff. Questions of property drove their informal, improvised discussions. The recordings were subsequently fragmented and collaged using a variety of sound effects, including voice distortion. The final version is a soundtrack of around eight minutes, presented in the form of a vinyl record playing intermittently in the gallery. The gallery’s lights turns green when the record player is active, creating a dreamlike atmosphere (…).

‘Rêve Topiaire’, refers to French gardens and, more broadly, the context of the Pays de la Loire in the formation of the French psyche. Specifically it examines the contextual relationship of the place with French aristocracy, colonialist botanical practices, and the intent to control nature. The changing utterances and enunciations in the soundtrack create an almost hallucinatory scenario, which is further intensified by the suggestion of a landscape—one both psychological and geographical.

Miguel Amado