Endosymbiotic dreams

Charlotte Heninger is a French artist. Her installations anticipate inclusive eco-labelled futures, at the border of sciences and fiction. Through her approach, the artist develops a futuristic animism that is highlighted by her residencies in extreme territories (Atacama desert and Darien jungle, 2019).

The dream, through sleep, is a place where we all withdraw, where we sometimes find refuge – the one we live in when we move to this other dimension. The other world. An infra-world. Cerebral fluidity and plasticity, horizontal transfers of genes and ideas. The dream enables me to travel in the strata of your universe, of your mythology. Perhaps we dream the same languages.

The Endosymbiotic dreams project questions the presence of animist mythologies, oneirism and fluidity within our societies. This new chapter of her work is based on an experience of residence in the Panamanian region of Guna Yala – an autonomous province located northeast of the country, populated by matrilineal communities called the Kunas. This two-part project – one cinematographic, the other sculptural – began at the end of 2020. Presented for the first time in September 2021, the Heliconia and Nele series are here revived. The Heliconia series is made up of photographs that are printed on fabric through sublimation. These images feature unreal colors and fantasize a disproportionate jungle. The Nele are glass beads suspensions. They refer to one of the Kuna founding myths and to the Uinis, traditional bead adornments with geometric patterns inspired by mythology. Replaying this ecosystem in a closed space, like a diorama, enables us to combine reality, fiction and animist mythology.