VINCENT FOURNIER
Flora Incognita is an art-science project that imagines, according to The New York Times, ‘the potential and imaginary development of plant life on planets other than Earth.
By extrapolating possible life on other planets, it helps us to better understand our ownits limits, its capacity for adaptation, as well as its beauty and fragility.
In this way, Vincent Fourniers work questions the very definition of Life as we know it on Earth. His extraterrestrial species embody our own inquiries into what constitutes life, navigating between resilience, evolutionary tinkering, and adaptation.
Flora incognita – The Astrobotanical Herbarium
Imagine a parallel world, close to our own Earth, but where the plant kingdom has evolved in entirely different ways. In this alternative universe that of potentially habitable exoplanets plants find their astrobotanical doubles, shaped by other magnetic, gravitational, and atmospheric forces. Flora incognita is the new uchronia proposed by Vincent Fournier: a speculative herbarium dedicated to the possible forms of plant life, at the crossroads of art and botany.
With the collaboration of scientists from the Museum national d’Histoire naturelle, the artist grounds fiction in reality. In the spring of 2025, at the Domaine des tangs in Frances Limousin region, he transposes the sites local flora onto the exoplanet Prima sidera to imagine its evolution.
Reinterpreted through 3D technologies, this encyclopedic herbarium achieves an unprecedented photographic precision, in the lineage of great naturalist iconographies, from Anna Atkins to Karl Blossfeldt.
Flora incognita questions, through images, the possible forms of life. A mirror of our own world, this project evokes our origins and transformations while reflecting on our relationship with a biodiversity now in upheaval a singular and visionary approach.
Emilie Traverse
Vincent Fournier’s work unfolds as a sensitive and speculative cartography, where space centers (Space Project, 2007-2023), utopian architectures (Brasilia, 2012-2019; Kosmic Memories, 2020-2022), humanoid robots (The Man Machine, 2009-2016) and speculative ecosystems (Post Natural History, 2012-2022; Flora Incognita, 2023-2025) intersect. Each project is grounded in extensive research and collaborations with scientific institutions such as NASA, the Musum national dHistoire naturelle, and the CNRS.
Acquisitions from Museums and Institutions (selection)
Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, Centre Pompidou Paris, JP Morgan, LVMH, Maison Saint-Laurent, Socit Generale, MAST Foundation Bologne, Collection Garance Primat, Domaine de Chaumont-Sur-Loire, Vontobel Zurich, Swiss Life, Black Gold Museum Riyadh, Muse de la Chasse et de la Nature, Musez des Ursulines, Fondation Bullukian Lyon, , Art Museum SOLO Independencia, Madrid…
Solo Exhibitions (selection)
Saint Laurent Rive Droite, Paris – Los Angeles, 2025/2026, Zeng Xiaolian Museum of Art, China, 2026, Galerie XII, Los Angeles 2026, Galerie Rabouan Moussion, Paris 2026, Muse des Ursulines, 2026, Galerie 1905 Shenyang…
Group exhibitions (selection)
Fontevraud, le Musee dArt Moderne, 2026, Centre photographique Lishui, China, 2025, Scene Nationale Aubusson, 2025, Photography Museum of Lishuin China, 2025, Fotografiska Museum, Shanghai, Stockholm, Tallin, 2024.Jut Art Museum, Taiwan, 2024, Science-Fiction, Centre Pompidou, Saatchi Gallery, Londres. Unknown Unknowns, Triennale de Milan…
Books :
Primat sidera, Filigranes, 2026, Uchronie , Filigranes, 2023, Auctus animalis, Filigranes, 2022, Kosmic memories, Noeve, 2021, Brasilia, Noeve, 2020.
Post Natural History, Noeve, 2019, Space Utopia, Noeve x Rizzoli, 2018, Past Forward, 360, 2012.
Exhibitions :
Musee dArt Moderne Fontevraud, 2026, Photography Museum of Lishuin China 2026, Chaumont-Photo-sur-Loire, 2026, Saint Laurent Rive Droite, Paris & Los Angeles, 2025/2026, Zeng Xiaolian Museum of Art, China,2026, Galerie XII, Los Angeles 2026, Galerie Rabouan Moussion, Paris 2026, Galerie 1905,Shenyang, 2026, Fotografiska Museum, Shanghai, Stockholm, Tallin, 2024, Saatchi Gallery, London, 2023,MMCA, Soul, 2020, MET New York, 20179, Mori Art Museums Tokyo, ArtScience Museum Singapour, 2018.