Familiar with immersions and parallel universes, explorers of new life scenarios, Camille de Dieu and Laurent Novac from Studio Z1 take a plant “muse” from western movies as their starting point to animate the elevators of the Mont-Blanc Center Plaza with a video capsule visible until February 28, 2025.

Invited to express themselves within the walls of the Mont-Blanc Center, the Geneva artists of Studio Z1 choose to talk about cinema, not through a direct evocation, but rather an amusing allusion. Their visual proposal is called “Tumbleweed”.

“Moving across an often desert panoramic landscape, in western films this wandering ball allows visual transitions between scenes, offering a moment of pause while maintaining a narrative rhythm” specify the artists of Studio Z1. “Their silent and unpredictable movements often precede a radical change of state. This plant immediately summons, in itself, the universe of the western.”

Inspired by this notion of transition and unpredictability, the two artists introduce into their scenario this plant, able to adapte to extreme drought and to disperse its seedswhose once the part above the ground, once ripe and dry, separates from the roots to roll where the wind pushes. This tenacious weed ended up becoming the symbol of the American West, now recalling immediately this vast empty lands, but also an opening towards the unknown.

Thanks to this video capsule, the Mont-Blanc Center elevators are transformed until the end of February into three immersive capsules, like windows onto a plant and mineral landscape, with subtle changes on a sound layer full of discreet references.

Biography of Studio Z1

Born in 1986, Camille de Dieu and Laurent Novac founded Studio Z1 in 2016 to unite their personal experiences around sound, light and space. Camille de Dieu explores different materials and techniques including mapping, 3D modeling and ceramics. Laurent Novac’s research is oriented towards live performance and treats sound creation not only as accompaniment but as a source generating visual effects. Both artists and engineers, they produce installations and performances in real time as well as live audiovisuals which mix scientific references and fiction. Their virtual landscapes rely on extremely varied devices, from a screen on a circular rail that the public activates by moving it (with “Ever’ett”) to immersive walks based on data collected in forests, caves and grassy areas ( for “Otium” and “Otiosi”). Camille de Dieu and Laurent Novac are both guest professors at HEAD Geneva and at EPFL (Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne).

Link: website Studio Z1