In 2023, the Montpellier Imaging Resources Platform (MRI, under the scientific direction of Patrick Lemaire) celebrated its 20th anniversary with a scientific conference – and a challenge to its users: reveal the beauty of living systems through images.
The result: La vie est belle !, a striking exhibition presented at the Jardin des Plantes in Montpellier, where science meets aesthetics.
Since then, the exhibition has reached diverse audiences by appearing at numerous photography festivals:
Phot’Aubrac, Nasbinals (2024)
Spot Nature, Le Havre (2025)
What A Trip Festival, Montpellier (2025) and Le Crès (2025–2026)
Temps d’Expo, Pézenas (2025)
Itinérance Foto, Sète (2026)
Interested in the exhibition?
Contact the association Addict aux Sciences
5th Arts–Science Meeting – December 8, 2023
This 5th edition of the Arts–Science Meetings explores the theme “Invisible Lives of the Soil,” at the intersection of artistic practices and scientific research. The event offers an immersion into the soil’s microscopic worlds, highlighting their essential role in the face of contemporary socio-ecological challenges.
Through exhibitions, discussions, and workshops, artists and scientists invite audiences to take a fresh look at these little-known ecosystems and to question our relationship with the living world.
With:
Benjamin Lacroix, Kseniya Samardak, Gonzalo Quiroga-Artigas, Morgane Robert.
Acknowledgements:
Tony Josa Sala, Denis Miras, Mickael Reaux, and Nicolas Sourgens.
France Design Week
France Design Week (FDW) is a nationwide design festival held across France from September 7 to 28, with the 2023 theme “Living, Living Beings.” This year, inspired by the theme “Living, Living Beings,” the graphic designer Célia Teboul invited to the Montpellier session alongside 15 local designers, she called on Benjamin Lacroix (CRBM) to place design at the service of our research. This collaboration took place as part of COSA Montpellier, a collective of researchers based in Montpellier, committed to science outreach and using collaboration with artists as a way to engage with the public. This group is coordinated by our colleagues at the Charles Gerhardt Montpellier Institute (ICGM, Balard campus).
aa
The Pop-Up Gallery 2023
For the Pop-Up Gallery and the launch of World Wetlands Day, the artistnCélia Teboul and CNRS researcher Benjamin Lacroix, with the support of the CRBM and COSA (COnnexion Science et Art, Montpellier) isolated microorganisms from the Salines of Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone on Petri dishes #AgarArt
