Client: Marguerite Humeau & Kistefos MuseumArtist: Marguerite Humeau StudioLocation: Kistefos, Norway
Date: 2026-10-16 00:00:00 +0000 UTCTags: 3D-Printed Steel, Steel, Digital Design, Parametric Design, Art
The Garden of Resuscitation
“Marguerite Humeau unveils ‘The Garden of Resuscitation’ (2026), a new site-responsive installation conceived for Kistefos’s sculpture park. Through a series of sculptural interventions and seasonal processes, Marguerite Humeau transforms the forest bordering the river at the museum into an artwork in itself, unfolding across sculpture, ecology, ritual and time. The project reconstructs the life of a spruce tree in reverse, following what the artist describes as a ‘journey from the dead’. Moving through roots, fungi, plants, river currents and interdependent species, the work considers the forest as a sentient, metabolising entity, seeking to revive a relationship with the natural world that may have been forgotten.” Text Courtesy of White Cube.
A short walk into the forest, embraced by the living trees, you’ll find an intriguing dancing Mother Spruce, a dramatic yet environmentally contextual sculpture. From afar, the floating, light, dynamic, organic sculpture looks effortlessly alive.
To achieve the organic form, many of the elements were composed from 3D-printed steel, and the structural analysis workflow exploited digital optimisation on every single part of the sculpture. Echoing refinement in nature, the skeleton is reinforced only where it needs to be. Iterated for months to leave space for artistic expression and freeform movement, the pattern is manipulated to suit fabrication, structural needs and visual coherence. In a collaborative workflow, the sculpture emerged, with no requirement for additional sculpting or secondary cladding. The base of the trunk was rippled to match buckling modes, which adds stiffness and a unique form. The structural principles were absorbed by the artist; the final form is of a continuously elegant geometry emerging from the forest moss. Have a close look; the printed layers give the sculpture a unique texture.
The upper parts of the sculpture are in embossed stainless steel. The transition between the 3D-printed steel parts and the upper part is gradual and seamless.
The sculpture has been designed as a permanent piece with a design life of 50 years minimum, optimised to resist the extreme weather conditions of the Norwegian Forest.
All photos - Format Engineers