“My project begins with the image of a wave that detaches from the Earth’s crust, enters orbit, and circles the Earth, brushing past a variety of spacecraft, stray electronic debris, secret information, and invisible microorganisms from the abyss that were spit out during the interspatial tide.” — Estrid Lutz
 
La Citadelle — Centre d’art & Musées de Villefranche-sur-Mer is exhibiting the work of Estrid Lutz, an artist and surfer based in Puerto Escondido (literally “the hidden port”) in Mexico. For the first time, the exhibition will feature her blown glass pieces created at the Cirva, in Marseille.

Estrid Lutz was born in 1989, and is a graduate of the Beaux-Arts in Paris and the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Los Angeles. Fascinated by cutting-edge technologies applied to the fields of aeronautics, aerospace and weapons, she introduces into the field of art materials used in the manufacture of satellites, spacecraft, aircraft, cars, weapons, bullet-proof waistcoats and large-scale communication devices.

A trip to Mexico in 2018 led her to settle on the Pacific coast, close to Zicatela beach, known for its giant tubular waves that attract surfers from all over the world. This is where she lives and creates, amid the dizzying chaos of the forces of nature. The artist’s works are permeated by the energy flows of the currents and tornadoes that run through Zicatela. The artist’s daily experience of fludity through her contact with the ocean, is echoed in her work with blown glass. Glass has the peculiarity of appearing solid when cold, but liquid when heated to a certain temperature. This is due to its amorphous, non-crystalline molecular structure—in other words, its ‘chaotic’ nature. Working with hot glass is an experience of rare intensity, where the sense of danger created by the fire mingles with that of wonder. The impulse to relinquish oneself that it arouses is akin to the experience of surfing, where each moment crystallises into an enjoyment of the infinite.

The exhibition invites us on a galactic-submarine voyage between sky and sea: images of the depths of the ocean telescope with evocations of black holes. Estrid Lutz frequents research laboratories where she observes scientists at work and their extraordinary machines. To prepare for the exhibition, she visited the Marseille Astrophysics Laboratory (LAM) and the Oceanography Laboratory (LOV) at the Institut de la Mer de Villefranche (IMEV). The blown glass pieces are as reminiscent of the micro-organisms that can be observed through a microscope as they are of the high-tech equipment used in space stations. Between apnoea and weightlessness, visitors lose their bearings between the infinitely large and the infinitely small, biology and cutting-edge technology.

This exhibition is organised as part of the collaboration between La Citadelle — Centre d’art & Musées and Cirva, International Glass and Visual Arts Research Centre (Cirva).