Introduction

Espace Louis Vuitton Venice presents a solo exhibition featuring the work by the artist Pierre Huyghe: an official collateral event of the 57th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia. The show revolves around the movie A Journey that wasn’t (2005), born by a research undertaken by the Huyghe in collaboration with artists and scientists in the Antarctic: on board of the ancient sailing ship “Tara”, belonging to the explorer Jean-Louis Etienne, the group took a journey searching for a new island, born by the thawing, where an albino penguin should live.

The project is composed by two parts: the expedition itself and the translation in sound of the island’s topography, generating a arrangement performed by the symphony orchestra on the ice rink of Central Park in New York. In this way, the viewer is projected in two opposite universes: the wild and pure nature, and a urbanized and spectacularized society.