24. Nids d’humain

A native of Brittany, Catherine Cocherel studied visual arts in Quebec, with a specialisation in environmental art, acquainting herself with the region’s wide open spaces during her time there. Following her graduation, she settled in Marseille, between land and sea, and now has her studio at the Cité des Arts de la Rue (Street Arts Centre) as the Lézarap’art association’s Resident Associate Artist.

She has developed a unique artistic approach that draws on environmental art, land art, ecological art and performance. Her work is underpinned by notions of identity and habitat that re-examine our relationship with nature and our own nature.

Her creations started out as installations/performances, gradually transforming into more permanent sculptures so that audiences would no longer simply be spectators and nature not just an image but an ally, contributing to wellbeing and awareness of our ineradicable connection with it.

Catherine explores new technical pathways, learning the arts of metalwork and horticulture, developing her initial experiments during artist’s residencies and in her studios. She creates metal sculptures with integrated irrigation systems and then adorns them with meticulously worked embroideries of vegetation, showcasing the beauty and importance of nature.

City life has only served to reinforce her love of the plant kingdom and her determination that it should continue to be an integral part of her everyday life, finally making it her own Nest. She creates unique, immersive, intimate experiences by enabling us to get deep inside her Nests.

Her artist’s residencies, integration projects and workshops cultivate encounters and the sharing of practices and questions.

They are sources of sensory pleasure, celebration of life and the awakening of local and planetary ecological awareness that she makes substantial, immediate.