David Munoz

Opening of the exhibition Cosa Mentale, a project that aims to explore in tangible terms the intricate relationship between the environment and human activities. Situated at the crossroads of the visual arts, ecology and geoscience, the project focuses on the acceleration of glacier melt since the mid-1980s.

Cosa Mentale is presented as a two-part exhibition, with one held at Centre Culturel André Malraux in Le Bourget, and the other at CENTQUATRE-PARIS.

Really thinking the mesh means letting go of an idea that it has a centre. There is no being in the ‘middle’ – what would ‘middle’ mean anyway? The most important? How can one being be more important than another? This creates problems for environmental ethics, which risks oversimplifying things to coerce people to act.

Timothy Morton, The Ecological Thought

The melting glaciers underscore the ecological emergency and issues related to how landscapes are portrayed. Working at the crossroads of art and science, Cosa Mentale calls attention to these “critical areas” where the physical transformations remain largely unknown.

Munoz has developed a hybrid practice combining photography, computer-generated imagery, data science and video. He employs techniques that home in on how we perceive images: fractals for computer-generated virtual landscapes, gum bichromate and wet collodion, as well as printing techniques for erosion and living things, and the dark room and analogue prints for mapping the landscape.

Image © David Munoz

Cosa Mentale is an artistic project created by David Munoz and developed during two residencies between 2019 and 2021: a photography residency at La Capsule in Le Bourget, and a second at La Diagonale – University of Paris-Saclay. The installation is accompanied by a composition by artist and composer Camille Sauer.

Cosa Mentale – 45.3081, 6.7253 David Munoz et Camille Sauer
With the support of Némo, Biennale internationale des arts numériques de la Région Île de France, de l’ENS Paris-Saclay (La Scène de Recherche, le Département Génie Mécanique, le Département d’enseignement et de recherche Génie Civil et Environnement et l’IDHES), l’Université Paris-Saclay, la Diagonale Paris-Saclay, l’INRAE, La Capsule du Bourget et l’IRCAM.