The visitor entering the former sacristy of the Collège des Bernardins must first accustom their eyes to the darkness before making out, slightly below the wooden platform on which they stand, an inaccessible body of water above which two large tree trunks — still bearing a few bare, white branches — hang from cables at the top of the tall pillars and slowly rotate in opposite directions.
One is horizontal with a strong curve. One of its ends bristles with projections, strange appendages that spread out like a fan, protuberances resembling bony apophyses. The second trunk appears slightly further back.
Hanging upside down, parallel to the pillar, it is simpler in form. Each, at one end, grazes the surface of the water, leaving a faint wake that traces a circle almost instantly erased. The dim light produces on the wall a complex, constantly shifting interplay of powerful shadows and the shimmering reflection of the water, which seems to dematerialise the stone.
Excerpt from Un sillage sur l'eau noire... by Colette Garraud

Production Rubis Mécénat Cultural Fund, courtesy Galerie Aline Vidal, Galerie Laurence Bernard, 2016. Photo: Diane Auckland