Curated as a playful “art hunt,” Biennale Grandeur Nature II invites visitors to explore installations that appear like mirages in the landscape—whimsical, surprising, and often thought-provoking. The works on view were conceived specifically for the site, engaging with its natural and historical context without overshadowing it. Rather, they amplify the small wonders of the gardens, drawing attention to details that might otherwise go unnoticed. One installation even extends into the heart of the town, blurring the boundary between the château and the city itself.
In this context, Fatmi’s I Like America emerges as a powerful sculptural intervention. Constructed from equestrian jumping poles painted in the colors of the American flag, the work transforms a familiar national symbol into an imposing, chaotic structure—at once monumental and unstable. The tangled mass of red, white, and blue creates an immense, impenetrable barrier, calling into question notions of territory, identity, and exclusion.
This motif of the obstacle is central to Fatmi’s practice, where barriers are not only physical but metaphorical—challenges to be confronted, questioned, and dismantled. In I Like America, the flag becomes fractured, fragmented by multiple perspectives. As visitors move around the sculpture, the image collapses and reassembles, reflecting the fractured realities of contemporary geopolitics. Drawing on Jacques Derrida’s philosophy of deconstruction, Fatmi uses form to disassemble inherited narratives, creating space for new connections and conversations to emerge. LEARN MORE.
