la traversée de la forêt (crossing the forest)
aurèce vettier
la traversée de la forêt (crossing the forest) is a large-scale installation by aurèce vettier, currently on view at the Contemporary Art Museum of Lyon (macLYON) until July 2025, as part of the exhibition Echoes of the Past, Promises of the Future. The work weaves together algorithmically generated imagery and traditional craft to evoke a poetic crossing between artificial worlds and natural memory.
At its center is a monumental tapestry (380 × 160 cm), created from an image generated by a custom-trained AI model using the artist’s personal archive and dreams as data. This image was translated into a tissable matrix and woven on a Jacquard loom in Aubusson. The process completes a conceptual loop: a neural network interprets memory and dreams, then renders them into textile via one of history’s first programmable machines—the Jacquard loom, invented in the early 1800s. Surrounding the central tapestry are smaller woven works, also derived from AI-processed dream fragments, forming a constellation of subconscious images.
Nearby, large-scale bronze sculptures from Potential Herbariums series depict tree-like forms generated by GANs trained on botanical datasets—hybrid organisms that are at once familiar and otherworldly, embodying the tension between nature and machine, intuition and code. The installation brings together sur-nature and sur-reality, the two conceptual pillars of aurèce vettier’s practice: one imagines artificial flora; the other reprocesses memory into immersive dreamscapes. Here, the forest becomes a metaphorical passage—between biology and computation, past and future, material craft and digital poetry, real and invented worlds.
Project Collaborators:
la traversée de la forêt (crossing the forest) was made possible thanks to the support and vision of many partners. The installation is currently on view at the macLYON – Musée d’Art Contemporain de Lyon, under the direction of Isabelle Bertolotti and curated by Marilou Laneuville. The work was produced in collaboration with exceptional French artisans, including Fonderie Fusions in Auvergne and the textile workshop Neolice in Aubusson. The generous contribution of Dimitri de Jonghe enabled the production of several major pieces. Designer Katarzyna Cichy collaborated with aurèce vettier on the butterflies, and artist Andrea Chiampo contributed to the modeling of one of the sculptural elements. The installation is also supported by Darmo Gallery in Paris and The Spaceless Gallery in Miami, both of which continue to accompany aurèce vettier’s development and international reach. This collective effort reflects a deep commitment to bridging advanced technology with traditional savoir-faire.
