Eden

Initiated as part of the inaugural Immersion. A French American Photography Commission, a program launched by the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès in alliance with Aperture Foundation, Eden is the first iteration of artist Sylvain Couzinet-Jacques’s eponymous long-term project. As part of the commission, Couzinet-Jacques purchased a small, historical building in Eden, North Carolina, as a site for an immersive exploration of the ideas of property, community, and image-making. The resultant output is eclectic, incorporating Polaroids, video, traditional photographic film, found objects, historical documents, and sculptural elements—the better to articulate and grapple with the often contradictory themes of utopia and home, the inevitable gaps between representation and reality, and the work of art as a means of re-enchantment. In addition to his own visual investigations, Couzinet-Jacques invited a group of sculptors, writers, videographers, and other artists to visit Eden over the course of the year and to create work inspired by the Little Red Schoolhouse. Selections of the resulting work, including pieces from each of the participants and elements from the house itself, are interwoven as part of this ambitious building and greenhouse installation, designed in collaboration with architects Jérémie Dalin and Sylvia Bourgoin and with the guidance of NY Sun Works, an urban sustainability non-profit organization.