Écran LCD, bouleau (2026)

A birch appears to contain a fire that produces neither heat nor damage.

In Écran LCD, bouleau (2026), French artist Bastien Cuénot temporarily integrated an LCD screen into a tree. Moving flames fill the display, while bark surrounding its edges makes the rectangular technology appear embedded within the trunk.

The screen becomes an impossible view into the tree’s interior. Its digital fire is visibly present but materially absent, creating tension between the organic structure, the constructed intervention and the image it carries. The surrounding forest strengthens the illusion by placing an industrial display where it seems least likely to belong.

Cuénot’s subsequent removal of the installation completes the work. A follow-up video shows him carefully dismantling its structural elements and returning the undamaged tree to its original state.

The intervention therefore exists through both appearance and disappearance. Technology enters the landscape, temporarily alters how the tree is perceived and then withdraws without leaving a permanent physical trace. Once the screen is gone, the forest remains unchanged, but the image of a tree holding its own simulated fire persists.