An installation produced by les amis de la maison rouge for the patio.
Each winter, les amis de la maison rouge produce a work specifically for the foundation’s patio. This year, members were invited to vote for one of three artists, selected by Aurélie Voltz, an independent curator chosen by the board of the society of friends.
"Marie Denis proposes to take over the patio with five majestic sculptures of box-tree balls set inside immaculate domes. These immense emerald-coloured jewels are a fusion of very different worlds: that of topiary, which is the art of clipping evergreen shrubs and trees into shapes, and that of agricultural machinery, from which the dome-silo has been taken. This unexpected encounter is nonetheless rooted in a world of similar, universal shapes: the sphere. Marie Denis revisits this timeless geometric form, used from classical gardens to the decoration of town squares and roundabouts, confronting two elements to introduce a poetic force. The patio, which is almost submerged by these oversized sculptures, resembles a waking dream."

"The patio at la maison rouge comes across as the perfect site for the French artist Marie Denis, whose work deals extensively with plants. This former Villa Médicis resident has no doubt brought back from her time in Rome a taste for exceptional settings, architecture in-the-making, and absurd situations, constantly challenging our relationship to scale and size, making light of society’s established rules and transforming ordinary moments of life into poetry. Through her observation of nature shaped by human hands, and the light which her installations and sculptures made from organic materials shed on cultural practices, her work sits harmoniously between the universal and the everyday." (Aurélie Voltz, December 2008)
Aurélie Voltz is an independent curator in Berlin. Her most recent projects were at La Maison Populaire in Montreuil (L’homme nu trilogy), the Musée de l’Objet in Blois (Le Revolver à cheveux blancs) and Artissima in Turin (Retour à soi). She is a member of the Artist Pension Trust Berlin curatorial committee and contributes to Flash Art and 02 magazines.

*This evocative title is taken from a ballad by the Italian singer Lucio Battisti, whom Marie Denis describes as having "atmospheric" or particularly inspirational qualities.

The exhibition is supported by les jardins de Gally and Silos France.