Les sentiers de la pluie
Les sentiers de la pluie is a project led by artist Micol Grazioli as part of the "Entrée des artistes" program at the FRAC Sud, in collaboration with the Préalpes d’Azur Regional Natural Park, the schools of Bar-sur-Loup, Gréolières, Pont-du-Loup, and the healthcare facility Les Cadrans solaires in Vence.
Micol Grazioli was invited to explore the theme of the karst landscape through a large-scale series of collaborative workshops with the participating classes.
The relationship between humans and nature is at the heart of Grazioli’s practice, which focuses on developing aesthetic systems to raise ecological awareness.
Relational art and participatory creation play a central role in her work, which often takes the form of installations or sculptures closely tied to the materiality of the places they inhabit.
This partnership is based on a cross-disciplinary approach: the artist invited by the FRAC is asked to explore one of the thematic axes of the Park’s environmental and territorial awareness program, and to design a project in coherence with the scientific interventions carried out in parallel.
The focus for the six participating classes is the karst, a geological phenomenon present both above and below ground, notably through the formation of caves, where the flow of water contributes to the erosion of rock.
The artist embraced this concept and offers students a series of creative explorations in multiple stages.
The first step, dedicated to the creation of a collective map, is an opportunity to explore the landscape’s varied reliefs and the real or imagined paths of water, both on the surface and underground.
Next, the children explore the movement of water through hands-on experiences, using techniques such as clay modeling and plaster casting.
Older students imagine a game inspired by Battleship, illustrating the difficulty water faces in finding its way through stone.
The third phase of the project focuses on the inhabitants of caves, their sensations, and their forms.
Using an overhead projector, the children are invited to move through a softly lit space populated by a series of origami animals, playing with shadows and embracing the darkness of the caverns.
Public sharing on June 7 in Gourdon
