19 Saint-Savinien Church

50 kg of dried roses, variable dimensions

In the mid-1970s, herman de vries began focusing on materials, processes, and natural phenomena, presenting them as primary physical realities of human existence. Since then, he has collected, arranged, distinguished, and displayed fragments of nature and culture, drawing attention to the unity and diversity of the world around us. A biologist and naturalist, de vries believes that the processes and phenomena of nature cannot be fully translated and explained in purely rational terms. His entire body of work moves towards a suspended and poetic transposition of the meaning of life. He concentrates on the complex relationships between nature and culture, and how these two components of our lives influence each other. The installation "rosa damascena" leads the viewer through a multisensory and mental experience of powerful subtlety.