Marguerite Humeau：不可见的生命形态
Marguerite Humeau: Invisible Forms of Life
Writer: Vankingking
Date: 07/05/2026
Keywords: speculative life / cross-species language / ecology / collective systems
Date: 07/05/2026
Keywords: speculative life / cross-species language / ecology / collective systems
Since its establishment in 1984, the Turner Prize has been regarded as an important lens through which to observe the context of contemporary art in Britain. Its selections often point to shifts in how art engages with social, historical, and perceptual structures. The 2026 shortlist continues this trajectory, with Marguerite Humeau nominated for her installation work Torches. Previously presented at ARKEN Museum of Contemporary Art in Copenhagen, Torches organises the exhibition space through a structure reminiscent of opera: different installations unfold as successive “scenes”, gradually forming a speculative narrative of life through shifts in rhythm and atmosphere. Rather than centring on a single object, the work develops through multiple interrelated structures, proposing a scenario in which human beings no longer exist as isolated individuals, but move towards a collective form of life, attempting to synchronise with other living systems. Within this framework, life is no longer understood as a stable entity, but as a relation that flows and recomposes itself across different levels.
Marguerite Humeau, ‘Torches’ at ARKEN Museum, 2025 © Marguerite Humeau. Photography by Mathilde Agius. Courtesy of the artist
玛格丽特·休莫（Marguerite Humeau，1986年生于法国，现居伦敦），她的创作长期围绕“不可见的生命形态”展开，结合古生物学、语言学与生态研究，通过雕塑、声音与空间装置构建出一系列介于科学与虚构之间的存在模型。她的实践并不试图再现历史或自然，而是通过对“缺席之物”的推演，使某种尚未被经验的生命维度暂时显现。
在她较早的项目《Echoes》（2015）中，这种对“缺席”的处理已初步显现。她以克利奥帕特拉的声音为出发点，通过声学建模与历史语言研究，尝试复原一个早已消失的发声系统。作品不仅涉及古埃及语，还引入多种已灭绝的语言结构，并通过算法与推测构建其可能的声音形态。展览空间被布置为一种混合场域：既像实验室，也带有宗教仪式的氛围，声音在其中反复回荡，却始终缺乏一个可见的身体作为源头。观众所面对的，是一种“无身体的存在”——声音成为生命的唯一残留形式，同时也是一种不断被延迟的证据。在这里，生命不再依赖于物质实体，而以振动与回声的方式持续存在。
Marguerite Humeau, born in France in 1986 and now based in London, has long centred her practice on “invisible forms of life”. Bringing together palaeontology, linguistics, and ecological research, she constructs a series of models of existence between science and fiction through sculpture, sound, and spatial installation. Her practice does not seek to represent history or nature directly. Rather, through the speculative unfolding of what is absent, it allows certain dimensions of life that have not yet been experienced to temporarily come into view.
This engagement with absence was already present in her earlier project Echoes (2015). Taking the voice of Cleopatra as its point of departure, Humeau used acoustic modelling and historical linguistic research to attempt the reconstruction of a vocal system that had long disappeared. The work involved not only ancient Egyptian, but also a range of extinct linguistic structures, using algorithms and speculation to construct their possible sonic forms. The exhibition space was arranged as a hybrid field: at once reminiscent of a laboratory and charged with the atmosphere of religious ritual. Sound reverberated repeatedly within it, yet always lacked a visible body as its source. What the viewer encounters is a form of “bodiless presence”: sound becomes the only remaining trace of life, as well as a kind of evidence continually deferred. Here, life no longer depends on material embodiment, but persists through vibration and echo.
Marguerite Humeau, Echoes, 2015, Images courtesy of the artist and DUVE Berlin
《FOXP2》（2016）围绕同名语言基因展开，这一基因被认为与人类语言能力的进化密切相关。Humeau在此基础上构建了一个跨物种的语言系统：她结合动物行为学与神经科学研究，将大象的情感交流与低频声音转译为一种复杂的沟通网络。作品通过雕塑、振动与声场的布置，使语言不再作为符号系统出现，而成为一种生理与情感机制。观众在空间中所经验的，并非“理解语言”，而是被卷入一种非人类的交流结构。在这一层面上，语言不再属于人类，而成为一种在不同物种之间分布的能力。
FOXP2 (2016) takes as its point of departure the gene of the same name, which is understood to be closely connected to the evolution of human language capacity. Building on this premise, Humeau constructs a cross-species linguistic system. Drawing on research in animal behaviour and neuroscience, she translates the emotional communication and infrasonic sounds of elephants into a complex communicative network. Through the arrangement of sculpture, vibration, and sonic fields, language no longer appears as a symbolic system, but as a physiological and affective mechanism. What the viewer experiences in the space is not the “understanding” of language, but an immersion into a non-human structure of communication. At this level, language no longer belongs exclusively to the human; it becomes a capacity distributed across different species.
Marguerite Humeau,'FOXP2 (Biological Showroom)', Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2016
这种跨物种的感知逐渐扩展至更为复杂的存在维度。《Mist》（2019）将注意力从语言系统转向非人类的意识与环境经验。作品受到气候变化背景的影响，尤其关注海洋哺乳动物在生态压力下的行为变化。Humeau提出了一个极端的设想：当大规模灭绝不断加速，非人类生命是否会发展出某种“灵性”维度。作品并非简单回应生态危机，而是构建一种推测性情境——动物在面对自身终结时，开始产生意识，并逐渐形成与死亡相关的行为与情感结构。展览中的雕塑围绕一系列被赋予“行动”的非人类形态展开：漂浮、搁浅或濒临死亡的海洋哺乳动物，似乎正在进行某种类似仪式的动作，如呼吸、聚集或对消逝个体的回应。这些行为既来源于现实观察，又被推向一个超出经验的层面，使其呈现出接近宗教仪式的结构。由此，生命不再仅指向生物学存在，而逐渐涉及感知结构、环境压力与某种难以被命名的精神维度。
This cross-species mode of perception gradually expands into more complex dimensions of existence. In Mist (2019), Humeau shifts her attention from linguistic systems to non-human consciousness and environmental experience. Shaped by the context of climate change, the work is particularly concerned with behavioural changes among marine mammals under ecological pressure. Humeau proposes an extreme hypothesis: as mass extinction continues to accelerate, might non-human life develop a kind of “spiritual” dimension? The work does not simply respond to ecological crisis, but constructs a speculative scenario in which animals, faced with their own extinction, begin to generate consciousness and gradually form behavioural and affective structures related to death. The sculptures in the exhibition revolve around a series of non-human forms endowed with a sense of “action”: marine mammals that appear to be floating, stranded, or approaching death, seemingly engaged in ritual-like gestures such as breathing, gathering, or responding to vanished individuals. These behaviours are partly grounded in real observation, yet are pushed beyond the limits of experience, taking on a structure close to that of religious ritual. In this sense, life no longer refers only to biological existence, but increasingly involves structures of perception, environmental pressure, and a spiritual dimension that resists being named.
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Marguerite Humeau, The Dead (A drifting, dying marine mammal), 2019（left）
Marguerite Humeau, The Breather II (A marine mammal performing a breathing ritual at full moon), 2019（right）
当语言与感知的边界被不断松动，生命也不再停留于个体层面。《meys》（2023）正是在这一延伸之中，将关注转向群体与系统本身。作品以昆虫社会为参照——特别是蜜蜂与白蚁群体——关注一种去中心化的生命组织方式。雕塑与空间结构模拟出群体行为的分布模式，使生命不再归属于单一主体，而在整体系统中流动。个体在其中既存在，又随时可能被替代，行为与能量的流动成为更为关键的要素。这种结构改变了观看方式：观众不再面对一个作品，而进入一个持续运作的系统之中，体验一种“没有中心”的生命状态。
The motif of the “Sociomobile” reappeared in Kaur’s 2023 solo exhibition Alter Altar at Tramway, Glasgow, a presentation that formed part of her Turner Prize nomination. The exhibition activated the gallery through sculptural assemblage and sound installation, drawing upon Axminster carpets, Irn-Bru (Scotland’s national soft drink), football scarves, political pamphlets, and family photographs. These quotidian objects were reconfigured into a spatial archive of cultural memory. The sonic environment—comprising organ music, popular songs, and Sikh devotional chant—produced a genuinely polyphonic field, embodying the coexistence of multiple cultural registers and identity formations.
Marguerite Humeau, meys, Whitecube，London, 2023
当生命被理解为一种在系统中流动的关系，这一结构也随之被进一步扩展。《Orisons》（2023）将这一逻辑从空间装置推向更为开放的生态尺度。项目位于美国科罗拉多州，占地约160英亩，由数十件雕塑构成，并与当地生态环境共同运作。风、土壤、动物与植物成为作品的一部分，使艺术不再局限于展览空间，而扩展为一个开放的生态系统。雕塑并非静态存在，而在风力与环境变化中持续发生形态转变。与此同时，项目还涉及当地社区、农民与科学研究者，使人类与非人类之间的关系被重新组织。在这一语境中，“作品”这一概念本身被松动——土地、气候与时间共同构成了一个不断变化的结构。
When life is understood as a relation that flows within systems, this structure is further expanded. Orisons (2023) extends this logic from spatial installation towards a more open ecological scale. Located in Colorado, United States, the project spans approximately 160 acres and consists of dozens of sculptures that operate in relation to the local ecological environment. Wind, soil, animals, and plants become part of the work, allowing art to move beyond the confines of the exhibition space and unfold as an open ecological system. The sculptures are not static objects, but continually transform in response to wind and environmental change. At the same time, the project also involves local communities, farmers, and scientific researchers, reorganising the relationship between human and non-human agents. In this context, the very concept of the “work” is loosened: land, climate, and time together form a structure that remains in constant transformation.
“Orisons” by Marguerite Humeau, 2023. Photo: Julia Andréone & Florine Bonaventure. Courtesy of the artist and Black Cube Nomadic Art Museum.
从声音的复原，到语言的重构，再到感知、群体与生态系统的生成，Humeau不断将“生命”的定义向外扩展。她的作品不再试图描绘一个既定的世界，而是在不同尺度上构建存在的条件。声音可以脱离身体，语言可以跨越物种，意识可以不依附于人类，而生命最终表现为一种在环境中持续流动的结构。
From the reconstruction of sound, to the reconfiguration of language, and further to the generation of perception, collectives, and ecological systems, Humeau continually expands the definition of “life” outwards. Her works no longer attempt to depict a world that already exists; instead, they construct the conditions of existence across different scales. Sound can detach itself from the body, language can move across species, consciousness need not remain bound to the human, and life ultimately appears as a structure that continues to flow through the environment.