When a musical instrument loses its vibration and resonance due to years of wear-and-tear or neglect, Mathieu Desailly, Vincent Gadras and David Chalmin give it a new lease of life as a moving mechanical and instrumental sculpture. Wooden and metal parts from instruments are taken apart and then put back together to create weird and wonderful moving musical animals. The shapes are inspired by arthropods (from the Greek arthron meaning “joint” and podos meaning “foot” or “leg”) with insects, crustaceans, trilobites and other arachnids developed by the mastery of these artists, sculptors and musicians. The eye is drawn to their joints and outgrowths, and the materials of the instruments they once were. The mechanisms are animated to create micro-movements, vibrations, undulations, openings and closings to perform a musical number specially composed for each sculpture and the instruments used to make it. Not only have the materials been metamorphosed, but there is a new lease of musical life, which is randomly integrated into the BESTIAIRE UTOPIQUE arrangement. The threesome has now produced six pieces, and will be exhibiting their extraordinary musical, artistic and naturalist collection at a residency at Hôtel Pasteur where we will be able to witness the creation of a seventh piece in situ…