Sommet du volcan le Puy de Dôme - Crystalline Thresholds | Les Portes de Givre

"The door to the invisible must be visible" as René Daumal says in his famous novel Le Mont Analogue. Crystalline Thresholds | Les Portes de Givre is a series of seven frozen passageways sculpted the Atlantic winds in the winter of 2022/23 by artist Sabine Mirlesse. The ephemeral Land Art installation was inspired by the discovery of her grandfather's engineering work on the behavior of frost on the mountain in the 1930s and is a nod to the Gallo-roman Temple of Mercury, place of pilgrimage for centuries at the top of the Chaîne des Puys volcanoes, uniquely positioned above the mists and clouds. There are seven portals installed in the constellation of Pleiades, engineered to stimulate ice and frost formations of the micro-climate, growing larger only to melt with the arrival of spring. This work is Mirlesse's first public art installation and is part of the Ministry of Culture's Mondes Nouveaux program.