I date my first «PAYSAGES DʼARTIFICE» to 1996, when I left Paris to settle in a small village lost in a southern Picardyʼs clearing.
Since then, I fashion flexible and adjustable structures that I expose to the elements in my garden, before transforming and transposing them as far as
in-situ Installations.
From improvisations to repetitions, from archaism to innovation, with patience and impatience, I play with the rhythm of time and seasons.
In recent years, my open-air workshop has been changing much. Droughts, storms and cold winters have succeeded, many trees have disappeared up to clearing a sad meadow. No more shade in summer, no more wooded protective screen in winter. This change has many implications on the inclusion of my work within nature.
I use the flexibility of the textile language to build a bridge between mankind and the collective space.
I employ metallic threads, plastic ribbons, packing materials with no regards for their industrial or decorative usages, I assemble them, plait them, crease them till I materialize a fun border between lightness and rigidity.These materials are everyday and trite, the gestures are simple and repetitive, but the existence of Installations restructures the original framework.
Thin and transparent screens capture the light, graceful and fluid geometric constructions improvise a random dance with the wind, while a strange flora invades the gardens:
fragile in town, futile in prestigious surroundings, artificial in nature, my Installations, once they are confronted with the spot I put them up in, reflect a personal questioning about obviousness, certainties and limits.
I make up a fleeting environment placed at the boundary between landscape and culture.
The glance lingers on overlooked details in a paradoxical space that brushes with the notions of area and nature, of durability and precariousness. This distance forces a reflection on our habits and our society. A real dialogue begins as the response of passersby often gives me an unusual vision of my work and sometimes their interpretations are the starting point for new projects.
I attach great importance to the time spent on the spot. The encounters, the exchanges, the unforeseen incidents and the laughs change this period into a festive while that I cherish as well as the inclusion of my work within nature.
Weekly Fibre Artist Interview: link
EXTRACT:
Tell us about your work?
My work consists of designing ephemeral and artificial Installations within nature, in order to let the sun and rain increase the transparency effects and illusions.
Successively, traps or offerings, screens or windows, my structures are never frozen; they vibrate between shadow and light, they move with the wind, in a succession of contradictory images, which reflect a plural reality. With plastic ribbons, I draw in space an unusual parenthesis that questions the ambiguous relationship between mankind and its environment.
I make a series of light shifts: moving a textile object in a public space, using a variety of materials, and putting a contemporary interpretation and using traditional techniques to give the wanderer a feeling of disorientation in his own landscape.
Which is your favourite fibre medium?
Currently, I plait (braid) multicoloured nets from gift ribbon using a "Sprang" technique.
The gift ribbon is very light, strong, economical and comes in an infinite number of colours. I play on the idea of a present and of celebration, but also the ridiculous aspect of the cheap shoddy goods that are indicative of a society that puts more importance on the packaging than on the content.
The nets are in turn sensors and protectors; they seep, they ripple, they get through space, dividing or revealing it. They embody a tension between reality and imaginary.
I am always fascinated by the result. This technique of plaiting dates back to the bronze age and has the magic particularity of a mirror repetition. I play with its exceptional elasticity and its various facets (net, weaving, lace).
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improvised studio, Sentier Art 3 Bois de Belle Rivière, Canada, summer 2010, medium: gift ribbon and stainless steel thread, technique: sprang, photo credit: Florence Carbonne
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Tell us about your studio and how you work:
I do not have a studio and my work is seasonal. In winter I plait inside the house, and I go out as soon as time permits. In sprang, I use an old ladder to reach my threads and unroll as I need them. I rarely reuse the same module twice. I consider my work as ephemeral and do not keep it. I like to take my time, patiently plaiting, testing the resistance of structures to the elements, then take the final installation to discover a region and its people.
I paesaggi artificiali di Edith Meusnier
Installazioni vibranti e colorate per creare una natura immaginaria
Un intreccio di fili colorati, leggero e trasparente, cattura e riflette la luce; fluide costruzioni geometriche si increspano e ondeggiano sospese nel vento; un’insolita vegetazione si fa strada nei boschi: è la natura artificiale di Edith Meusnier.
Dal 1996 l’artista francese piega e intreccia fili metallici, nastri di plastica come quelli da regalo e materiali da imballaggio per realizzare strutture effimere, flessibili e colorate, che in un secondo momento inserisce nel fitto dei boschi, sospese tra gli alberi o sull’acqua dei canali, giocando tra rigidità e leggerezza. I materiali sono banali e quotidiani e i gesti semplici e ripetitivi ma le strutture cui danno vita modificano i luoghi con la loro presenza straniante e inaspettata.
Edith Meusnier utilizza la flessibilità del tessuto per accendere il paesaggio naturale del riverbero colorato delle sue reti, sottolineando la relazione ambigua tra l’uomo e l’ambiente, suscitando allo stesso tempo stupore, meraviglia e disorientamento. Lo studio dell’artista è il proprio giardino e le sue opere sono pensate fin dall'origine per svilupparsi e integrarsi nel paesaggio naturale, lasciando interagire la propria artificialità con la casualità degli elementi naturali.
Il vento, la luce del sole, l’acqua modificano e amplificano con effetti imprevedibili e poetici le forme e i riflessi colorati delle installazioni. Le maglie delle grandi reti vibrano e oscillano al vento e l’acqua o la neve ne catturano i riflessi colorati ridisegnando il paesaggio tra realtà e illusione, scoperte inattese e incontri surreali. Che siano gli enormi frutti di una natura immaginaria, diafane ragnatele sospese tra i rami o prismi dai colori vivaci fluttuanti sull'acqua, le opere dell’artista francese reinventano il paesaggio con immaginazione e poesia.
Marianna Franzosi
(photo 
