David Dubois (b. 1971, Dinan, France) is a designer and scenographer whose objects draw on simple visual language. As a result, their functions are reduced to the essential and their forms adapt to their environment. Among the various works he designed on the occasion of Mudam’s opening in 2006, two can be found outside: the Bancs-terre (2006) and the Chênavélos (2006). Five Bancs-terre are placed near the entrance to Mudam. These fibre-reinforced concrete blocks, with their smooth surfaces and sharp edges, serve a dual purpose: they provide a resting spot where visitors can sit, but they are also planters maintained by the museum. The planter portion allows for a small ecosystem of simple, native plants to develop, alongside other plants grown by chance from bird-borne seeds.

After being installed near the museum entrance and subjected to intense use for many years, Chênavélos has found a new home under the trees, creating a direct link between its raw material and its environment. Made of oak trunks laid on the ground, its long and deliberate decomposition process allows for an ecosystem of mosses, fungi, and a fauna of small creatures to develop, all of which will contribute to the work’s eventual disappearance into the topsoil. Hence, the work has a dual function: as a strictly utilitarian object designed for bicycles, but also as a source of life on which plants can grow.