Clement Briend’s Tree Projections

French photographer and installation artist Clement Briend has a Banksian fetish, attempting an innovative methodology to engage with public space, nature and the cityscape. Through the convergence of projection and trees, Briend uses nature as a canvas and paints with photography. Multiple projectors are strategically positioned around trees to augment photographs into illusory three-dimensional figures, creating dynamic images in public urban environments. The spectrum of mirages ranges from gargoyles to architecture; his series Cambodian Trees in Phnom Penh, Cambodia looks into the soul with portraits of divine figures on street corners, parks and back alleyways. The conceptual raison d'être lies in hybridizing public spaces into moments of sober reflection and imaginative escape. Teacher at the University of Valenciennes in Paris, founder of the Politics Illuminations Group, whose mantra is “The freedom to create, at the service of society”, his artistic ambitions have led him to intervene in Berlin and Paris.