LA+ journal EXOTIQUE design competition - 2023
In collaboration with Nicole Wagy
Humans have been fascinated with the so-called wild—the weeds and non-domesticated. A curiosity, turned exploitation, of nature created ideations around what needed to be tamed, extracted, controlled, or mimicked in the name of research and aesthetic. We did the same thing to people and places we did not yet understand. Historic revelations and scientific findings of the few are shared within faux vignettes in museums, zoos, and greenhouses to transport patrons to worlds afar. We have created a cache of discoveries and recreated the messiness of their origins for displays or traveling exhibitions for loan—what a bizarre bazaar. Can contextual histories of the evolution of life fit in a box or on a pedestal? Can the world's wonders be offered in one location to be studied and admired?
A balancing act must be considered, as knowledge sharing is vital for the progression of scientific discoveries and a mutual understanding of humans' impact on Earth. We must reveal the histories of the past while shaping research and documentation methods for future discovery.
Le Grand Bazar de L'existence proposes a journey into the known and the unknown, the past and the future, and the controlled and the wild.
The forecourt's Garden of Possibilities interrogates humans' obsession with controlling nature and the traditional French garden organization and symbolism of the Euclidean parterres. Here the parterres start dissipating, liberating the native flora of the Paris Basin, and providing meandering paths for visitors. Central to the forecourt, the grade slopes down at the procession to the Unknown and invites visitors toward a lower level (today housing the taxidermy archive for the Museum moved closer to the library). The procession sets a cadence for the consumption of scientific findings (the known) and links to a new Gallery of Evolution entrance. The lower level Terrarium Gallery displays cloches of curiosities prepared with archival material and layered vignettes to question their origins and settings. Even further down, a parallel world to the displayed known science of the Museum's galleries, the Gallery of the Unknown expands the Museum for future human exploration (the Unknown).
Le Grand Bazar de L’existence expands the adjacent institutional landmarks beyond their thresholds into the Jardin des Plantes and challenges the process, preservation, and organization of novel findings from far off places. The sequence of revelatory experiences prepares visitors of the Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle and its adjacent gardens and galleries for learning—through contrasting themes of the known and the unknown, the past and the future, and the controlled and the wild.
Cargo Collective, Inc. Los Angeles, Calif.