with Bevis Martin & Charlie Youle

Public: Three classes from Rouen schools, CM1/CM2.

Location: Rouen

Duration: Six hours of workshops per class.

After a presentation of the work, which joyfully combines mathematics and the two artists’ use of scale, Bevis Martin showed the children the richness of the small world in front of them using a microscope and a video projector. Taking their inspiration from the quasi-fractal shapes found in the leaves of a tree, the broken lines of minerals in rock and the astonishing texture of an orange peel, the children set to cutting, sticking and painting. Each drawing was then enlarged to select only part of it, and then they repeated the process ad infinitum until they could no longer really recognise it.

Once a colourful collection of strange bacterial tentacles, microscopic stardust and exotic microalgae had been obtained, the drawings were reproduced on transparent sheets and enlarged using the schools’ overhead projectors (dusted for the occasion!). Finally, during the last session, these transparencies were transformed into slides and shown on a screen using a carousel projector for an astonishing microscopic journey…

Bevis Martin and Charlie Youle are two British artists who have been living in France for several years. Together, they develop a collaborative practice around sculpture with a strong interest in applied mathematics and how to make science more colourful and fun.

Funded by: ‘Édu’curieux’ of the City of Rouen.