Théo Mercier: Dream Hunters

“Dream Hunters” is the second chapter of the “Outremonde” cycle by French artist Théo Mercier. The first chapter, presented at the Lambert Collection in Avignon in 2021, was a performative manifestation consisting exclusively of sand sculptures that invited visitors to participate in an experiential process that eventually led to the slow dematerialisation of the sculptures. Through a live performance, visitors were invited to explore the sculptural landscape and follow a ten-year-old boy as he moved between moments, spaces and encounters, activating a unique context each time.

For the second chapter, which takes place in the Luma Westbau, an extended landscape of sand sculptures was created. Each sculpture is a remnant of a world where meaning is suspended, and houses a labyrinth of elements relating to processes of sleep, birth and regeneration. Théo Mercier‘s work explores themes of rejection, psychoanalysis and transcendence. His performances evolve into a complex, interdisciplinary approach involving the function of memory, the production of subjectivity and the understanding of the material world and human experience. The beds and dogs modelled with sand and the performative activities that are integral to the work reflect the ways in which the intimate and the affective are endowed with tension, possibility, suspense and desire.