PHILIPPE PARRENO

An almond grove is typically a garden of almond trees; here, it represents a locality, ‘El Almendral’. Located within a 35-hectare plot north of the Tabernas Desert in the province of Almería, this project functions simultaneously as an ecological habitat and a dynamic film set. It is supported by a newly created park envisioned as a site of transformation where a landscape and its representation can meet.

The resulting film El Almendral, streams directly into the main gallery space continuously in real-time, day and night, forming a living narrative responsive to environmental shifts, seasonal cycles and silent transformations. Landscape modifications include sustainable technologies such as solar power installations, moisture-collecting cloud nets, energy-generating wind traps and biodiversity-enhancing plantings. Audiovisual equipment continuously captures environmental transformations, reflecting the site’s evolving nature. Film production is approached similarly to agriculture – images are metaphorically cultivated, harvested and edited, paralleling local farming practices. Uniquely, the project grants the landscape legal self-ownership, recognising its non-human nature. El Almendral redefines the relationship between reality and fiction, between land and landscape, transforming traditional understandings of ecological consciousness.

El Almendral premiered at Haus der Kunst, Munich as part of the artist’s solo exhibition Voices, co-programmed with Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul (2024–2025). There, the film transcended the walls of the museum, extending it into a parallel landscape – a twin space connected by real-time data flow. These two terrains were further hybridised through ∂A, an artificial language generated via machine learning.

Alongside El Almendral, the gallery will present selected works by the artist including Parreno’s Marquee series. Initiated in 2006, Parreno’s Marquees are unique works, individual in their form, light effect and construction. The series was inspired by the glowing, flickering neon-lit marquees which were placed above the entrances to cinemas and theatres in the mid-20th century, announcing the titles of films playing inside. Deprived of their original context, Parreno’s Marquees acquire an altogether different meaning.