Miguel Chevalier has created three monumental installations, especially for the Jing An Kerry Centre in Shanghai, that are an ode to nature, announcing and celebrating the arrival of Spring.

“Digital Water Lilies” is a new site-specific virtual interactive garden that comes alive after sunset on the Piazza of the Jing An Kerry Centre, next to the former house of Chairman Mao. It’s a lush parterre of flowers and different varieties of luminescent plants. In this garden Miguel has included some varieties of flowers rich with symbolism and good auspices during the Spring in China, such as African lilies, Orchids, Camellias and Peach Tree flowers. Flowers appear randomly, come to full blossom and fade away, only to be reborn again. The garden renews itself time after time, constantly changing and flourishing into its summer glory. As visitors walk around the 600m² flower carpet, the garden senses them and shifts around them with the flowers opening up paths of discovery. As a new form of “Digital Impressionism”, the title and the cosmic sensibility of the work play homage to Monet and his research on light, seasons and nature.

Digital Water Lilies 2017, Miguel Chevalier
South Piazza, Jing An Kerry Centre, Shanghai (China)
Software: Claude Micheli
Technical Production: Voxels Productions
Courtesy Puerta Roja Gallery – Hong Kong

The second installation, “Trans-Natures” transforms the Jing An Kerry Centre tunnel into a lush 360-degree garden of mysterious arborescence, hiding and revealing flowers which generate a symphony of luminescent forms and colours. “Trans-Natures” announces the revival of nature. The stationary frescos on the walls are accompanied by four interactive virtual flowerbeds projected on the ground thus creating a fully immersive sensation.

Trans-Natures 2017, Miguel Chevalier
B2 tunnel, Jing An Kerry Centre, Shanghai (China)
Software: Claude Micheli
Technical Production: Voxels Productions
Courtesy Puerta Roja Gallery – Hong Kong

The last installation, “Dreamed Gardens” transforms two of the glass bridges at the Jing An Kerry Centre into huge colored stained glass windows, rich with translucent imagery. During the day, the soft light and richness of colour creates a magical environment reflected on the floor and ceiling and embracing visitors.

Dreamed Gardens 2017, Miguel Chevalier
L3 Bridges, Jing An Kerry Centre, Shanghai (China)
Technical Production: Voxels Productions
Courtesy Puerta Roja Gallery – Hong Kong 

Miguel Chevalier’s immersive environments place visitors at the heart of a reinvented nature, an intriguing and poetic botanical universe, a place between dreams and reality. His installations surprise us by creating a new poetic relationship between art and vegetation, and recreating the conditions of symbiosis between humankind and this reinvented Nature.