Julian Charrière's Poetic Installation in Ruinart's Cellars Reveals Champagne's Submerged History

Throughout 2025, Franco-Swiss artist Julian Charrière collaborated with Maison Ruinart on a project rooted in the geological history of Champagne. Taking as a starting point the Lutetian Sea that covered the region 45 million years ago, Charrière developed a body of works that interrogate current climate transformations. The project unfolds in two chapters: one in the chalk cellars (crayères) in Reims, classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site, and the other at art fairs where Ruinart participates. For the fairs, Charrière presents a series of coral reef images, photolithographs using a 19th-century printing technique. The works use pigments derived from coral and limestone-based lithography, reactivating a common geological memory. In the cellars, visitors hear a sound piece titled "Chorals," based on hydrophone recordings from reef ecosystems, capturing bioacoustic activity from crustaceans to marine mammals. The installation is permanent and viewable by reservation. Charrière cites philosopher Bruno Latour's concept of the "critical zone" as influential, emphasizing that there is no external viewpoint from which to neutrally observe the world.