Céleste Boursier-Mougenot:clinamenat the Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection
This summer, the Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection in Paris becomes a stage for an extraordinary exploration of sound, movement, and chance. From 6 June, acclaimed French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot transforms the museum’s Rotunda with his multisensory installation clinamen, presented under the curatorial direction of Emma Lavigne, Chief Curator and General Director of the Pinault Collection.
An Immersive Installation in the Heart of Paris
At the centre of this monumental work lies an 18-metre-diameter basin of water, reflecting the sky as it pours through the Rotunda’s historic glass dome. Floating across this deep blue surface are delicate white ceramic bowls, gently set into motion by a subtle current. As they drift, collide, and separate, the bowls create melodic tones; a spontaneous symphony shaped by invisible forces.
This natural orchestration forms the essence of clinamen. Unlike traditional musical performance, there is no score, no conductor, and no fixed arrangement. Instead, each sound emerges through chance encounters, offering visitors a composition that constantly renews itself. The work becomes a living organism—an acoustic environment in perpetual transformation.
The Philosophy of clinamen
The title of the piece carries profound meaning. Clinamen originates from Epicurean physics, describing the unpredictable swerve of atoms as they move through space. For Boursier-Mougenot, the term encapsulates the unpredictability and uniqueness of the experience. Every moment within the Rotunda is singular, impossible to replicate, and forever fleeting.
This embrace of chance aligns with the artist’s broader practice, in which sound is liberated from traditional structures and repurposed everyday objects are transformed into instruments. Through this process, Boursier-Mougenot invites visitors to reconsider the boundaries between art, music, and the ordinary rhythms of life.
Between Sound, Space, and Time
More than a sculptural or auditory work, clinamen is a meditation on time and perception. Within the Rotunda’s monumental architecture, the installation becomes a space of reverie, encouraging visitors to pause, listen, and reflect. As the bowls generate tones, concentric ripples expand across the water’s surface, creating a visual and sonic dialogue with the dome above.
Curator Emma Lavigne notes that the work evokes a shared artistic aspiration across generations:
“The concentric vibrations on the surface of this blue expanse evoke a desire to grasp infinity within the enclosed space of the canvas, an aspiration shared by Miró in his Blue trilogy, Mark Rothko in his capturing of silence through his atmospheric glazes, and Monet in the way he endowed a fragment of a pond punctuated with white water lilies with a sense of infinity. But Céleste Boursier-Mougenot’s work does not formalise a preexisting pictorial intention. It is instead the culmination of a compositional process that alone generates the form.”
A Legacy of Experimentation
Boursier-Mougenot has long been recognised for his ability to reconfigure materials and repurpose objects in ways that expand the possibilities of sound. His approach carries forward the spirit of Dada and Fluxus, movements that challenged artistic conventions through play, subversion, and détournement.
At the same time, his practice resonates with the DIY ethos of New York’s experimental music scene, drawing from punk to avant-garde sound art. Since the 1980s, he has questioned the legacies of post-serial music—moving away from rigid structures toward the unpredictable, the ephemeral, and the experiential.
A Collective Experience
In clinamen, visitors are not passive spectators but participants in a collective encounter. The shifting sounds and reflections shape each individual’s perception, but the installation also creates a shared moment of listening and dreaming. The boundaries between art, architecture, and human presence dissolve, leaving only the immediate experience of sound, water, and space.
By situating this installation within the Rotunda of the Bourse de Commerce, the Pinault Collection reaffirms its commitment to presenting contemporary art that engages both senses and ideas. Boursier-Mougenot’s work does not simply inhabit the building—it resonates with it, expanding its meaning and offering visitors an experience that is at once contemplative, playful, and profound.
A Symphony of the Present
With clinamen, Céleste Boursier-Mougenot suspends time, offering a symphony written not in notes but in ripples, collisions, and silence. In the heart of Paris, the installation reminds us of the beauty found in chance, the power of sound beyond music, and the infinite possibilities that emerge when art embraces the unpredictable.
