Zim & Zou are a French artist pair who create magnificent works utilizing materials such as paper, wood, and thread instead of computers. Even though the artists, whose actual names are Lucie Thomas and Thibault Zimmermann, work with various materials, paper is their favorite — and you best believe they can do some amazing things with it.
“They are inspired by paper’s adaptability, endless color palette, and distinctive textures. “The poetry of ephemeral material is given to an installation by flat paper sheets converted into volume,” the artists write on their website. The pair has collaborated with several well-known firms, including Hermès, IBM, and Microsoft. For their most recent project, Zim & Zou collaborated with the Nobel Prize Museum of Sweden to produce “Sharing Worlds,” a sequence of scenarios from great literary works.
The artists constructed installations based on two books: Sigrid Undset’s “Kristin Lavransdatter” and Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “One Hundred Years of Solitude.”
Sigrid Undset wrote “Kristin Lavransdatter.”
“The artwork for Sigrid Undset’s novel ‘Kristin Lavransdatter’ (published in 1920) was done as a landscape. It is an homage to the Norway of the fourteenth century. The scenario takes place in and around Trondheim Cathedral, which is an important location in the plot.”
“Kristin Lavransdatter and her boyfriend, Erlend Nikulausson, are the two protagonists confronting each other at the top of the mountains. There’s the city between them, as well as all the elements that make their connection both difficult and lovely.”
Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude.”
“The artwork for Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude,’ released in 1967, was centered on the mansion where the whole tale takes place, as well as the site where all the family generations resided.”
“The home is nearly concealed from the world since it is highly closed in on itself and surrounded by greenery. The lush greenery surrounding the home also hides little crucial repeating components of the plot.”
The works are now on show in Dubai as part of the ‘Nobel Prize in Literature’ exhibition.
