At a time when a species vanishes every twenty minutes, the Grenier à Sel makes an impassioned plea: let's listen to the <b>animal voices</b>! From poetic robotics to invisible sounds, this free exhibition (October 4 - December 31, 2025) promises a disconcerting encounter with our feathered, furry... and circuit-board neighbors.
After lending an ear to plants in 2023 and then probing our complicated love affairs with the machine in 2024, Le Grenier à Sel completes its trilogy with the animal kingdom. Obvious? Not so simple. Between the collapse of biodiversity (WWF estimates a 69% average decline in vertebrate populations since 1970) and the proliferation of anxiety-inducing discourse, a detour through art was needed to reopen the dialogue. Animal Voices thus claims a sensitive approach, less utilitarian, where we forget the statistics for a moment to listen, feel, experience.
Perched just steps away from the ramparts of Avignon, this former 17th-century warehouse refurbished by Jean-Michel Wilmotte blends stone vaults and LED screens. The result? A setting where heritage meets cutting-edge technology. The EDIS endowment fund, which initiated the project, has a clear mission: to intersect art, science, and societal challenges. Free admission, smart hours (Wednesday-Saturday, 2pm-6pm): everything is designed so that the public, from curious high school students to senior music lovers, can walk through the doors with ease.
Along the way, we encounter:
- Nicolas Darrot and his butterfly robots (Apollo) that flap their wings as if they were real scales.
- France Cadet, repurposing toy dogs to criticize high-tech taxidermy.
- Filipe Vilas-Boas, rewriting the Fables of La Fontaine for the ChatGPT era.
- Lab212, turning your footsteps into ultrasonic waves akin to those of bats.
- The hypnotic archives of Jean Painlevé, a pioneer of underwater wildlife filmmaking.
Each examines a blind spot in our relationship with animals: empathy, domination, projection, or even pure fantasy.
No gadget demonstrations here. Sensors, algorithms, and 3D printers become extensions of the living: generative AI to translate a bird's song into light, soft robotics mimicking the slow slithering of a snake, sonification of climate data to reproduce the acoustic stress of a coral reef. According to a study from Stanford University, 72% of visitors retain an environmental message better when it is conveyed through a multisensory interactive experience. Bet achieved.
The exhibition can be read, listened to, and sometimes even sniffed (yes, indeed!). One moves through it as if walking along the edge of a forest: a digital figure slips away, a low-frequency growl resonates, a resinous scent wafts through the air. The journey includes pauses where one can sit down, don headphones, and catch the ultrasonic sounds of a bat colony recorded by Knud Viktor. Guaranteed emotion, says a converted skeptic.
Rather than listing shocking statistics (even though, between us, one million threatened species according to IPBES is chilling), "Animal Voices" opts for an approach of emotional connection. Visitors often leave with a seed of doubt: what if verbal language was just the tip of the iceberg? The curators hope to provoke a pangolin effect: to spark curiosity, then a desire to take action locally (gardening without pesticides, supporting a bird protection league, etc.).
Children under 12 first notice the tail-wagging robot dogs. Teens whip out TikTok to capture the luminous halos that react to their voices. The parents, on the other hand, enjoy the relative silence of an installation from "Tout reste à faire" where the fluttering of a butterfly's wings turns into a strobe light. In short, no need to have a degree in contemporary art to appreciate. Free + interactive = winning outing for an autumn weekend.
- Dates: October 4 to December 31, 2025.
- Rate: 0 €, yes it's free.
- Address: 2 rue du Rempart Saint-Lazare, Avignon (5 min from Halles parking).
- Free guided tour every Saturday at 3 pm, by reservation.
- Accessibility: elevator, Braille texts, induction loops.
Tip: Combine your visit with a trip to the nearby producers' market, to further contemplate the "earth & living" theme over some homemade tapenade.
The term encompasses works where sound is the primary material. Here, you won't find a Spotify playlist but acoustic landscapes captured in nature, then remixed or spatialized. Close your eyes: the museum transforms into a mangrove, a beehive, or a futuristic farmyard. A novel way to explore ecology without relying on the saturated images we see everywhere.
Changing our perspective on animals might mean learning to speak more softly. After "Animal Voices," there's a good chance you'll listen differently the next time a blackbird whistles under your window... And if Avignon isn't on your path, keep this in mind: the exhibition's tour could very well spread elsewhere—like a bat navigating by echolocation.
Author Audrey on 17 May 2023
Art and Culture : Painters
Author Audrey on 05 October 2023
Art and Culture : Architecture