Hasta La Ideas

Dezeen promotion: visitors to this year’s Design Miami will be able to see themselves represented as an array of natural species in an interactive digital projection created by Austrian design studio Mischer’Traxler for French champagne house Perrier-Jouët.

Mischer’Traxler‘s installation called Embodied Nature features a shelving system that surrounds an open section of the wall, in which a silhouette of the viewer formed from various species is projected. The image reflects the visitor’s movement, which is intended to immerse them in the installation.

The shelves include more than 100 artistic representations of species from all over the world, which are hand-made from delicate metal mesh.

The display is intended to reference the ‘cabinet of curiosities’ that aristocrats and scholars created to display collections of rare and exotic items from the 16th-century onwards.

Every species in the installation is represented at the same scale, including microbes, bacteria, plants, flowers, animals and birds. The models are labelled to help visitors understand more about the relationships that exist between them.

Embodied Nature will be presented at the Design Miami art and design fair by Maison Perrier-Jouët as part of its commitment to redefine the relationship between humankind and nature.

“This emotional dimension is essential in our view,” Mischer’Traxler said. “It is what captures the attention of the viewer, making them more receptive to the educational and philosophical message of the work.”

“We are designers, not scientists,” the studio added. “It is important therefore to remember that Embodied Nature is an artwork, the result of a creative interpretation. It gives us, for instance, the freedom to represent species alongside one another that would never be a part of the same ecosystem in the real world.”

Perrier-Jouët regularly works with contemporary artists and designers to offer them an international platform for their creativity and has showcased the outcomes of these collaborations at Design Miami since 2012.

The French champagne house first collaborated with designers Katharina Mischer and Thomas Traxler in 2014 on a kinetic installation featuring plants that appeared to sprout as people walked away.

In 2015 the duo filled a room at London’s V&A Museum with blown-glass bulbs containing hand-made insects, and at Design Miami in 2020 Perrier-Jouët presented a chandelier-like version of the Curiosity Cloud installation comprising 22 insect-filled bulbs.

Perrier-Jouët’s ongoing exploration of the relationship between art and nature is informed in particular by Art Nouveau, a style of architecture and design that emerged in the late 19th-century and was characterised by its references to nature.

Alongside the Embodied Nature installation, Perrier-Jouët will also present limited edition gift boxes designed by Mischer’Traxler for the Belle Epoque 2013 and Belle Epoque Rosé 2013 vintage cuvées.

The boxes feature watercolour paintings that portray aspects of the vineyard ecosystem and the relationships that exist between the various living organisms required to sustain it.

To view more about Embodied Nature visit Mischer’Traxler’s website.

Design Miami takes place from 1 to 5 December. For details of more architecture and design events, visit Dezeen Events Guide.

Partnership content

This article was written by Dezeen for Perrier-Jouët as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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