‘Les Marques’ is an art installation that combines ‘generic’ images of women's bodies sourced from so-called ‘women's magazines’, combined with real growing plants. The inclusion of living plants in the artworks, which mimic the images from ‘Flora Brasiliensis 3.0’, emphasizes the inherent value of nature in its untouched state rather than its representation through various printed or digital media.
By creating resonance between ‘Les Marques’ and ‘Flora Brasiliensis 3.0’, Leydier is looking to offer a sense of hope and remedy after the critical examination. ‘Les Marques’ seeks to restore the value of plants and nature by suggesting that the best way to preserve them is to allow them to thrive and grow.
The plants featured in ‘Les Marques’ are intentionally sourced from farmers' seeds, or free seeds. These seeds are often not cataloged by major agribusiness companies, such as Monsanto, due to their unstable and heterogeneous characteristics. This kind of seed is difficult to find on the market, or even prohibited for sale, in many countries. However, these farmer's seeds embody biodiversity, and their disappearance poses a significant threat to overall biodiversity.
«Under the covers of women's magazines, Elsa Leydier has buried seeds. As the exhibition progresses, they pierce the blush cheeks and golden skin. Soon, they will completely mask the chimerical images that the glossy pages display. (...) Elsa Leydier's work consists in letting her photographs infest the hegemonic representations to better suffocate them.» Camille Bardin, curator and art critic