With Chorals, Julian Charrière creates a dialogue between the geological memory of the Crayères and today’s oceans, weakened by human activity.
In the intimacy of one of Maison Ruinart’s chalk cellars, the artist has designed an immersive installation combining sound, light, and water. A dark pool reflects the chalk walls; its surface is set in motion by a wave machine synchronized with underwater sounds recorded during dives in different ecosystems. The rustling of reefs, clicking shellfish, and cries of marine life revive this ancient seabed, a remnant of the warm sea that once covered Champagne.
Through this multi-sensorial installation, Julian Charrière immerses us in a submerged world, where the silent strata preserve millions of years of evolution. By making these fossil sediments vibrate to the rhythm of a fragile ocean, Chorals raises questions about the acceleration of environmental change. Where nature took millennia to form chalk, humanity is disrupting these balances in just a few decades.