This project combines a video projection with a soil sample from Tuvalu to invite reflection on key issues such as climate change, the environment, identity, culture, and technology. The challenges facing Tuvalu mirror global concerns.
It stems from the Terre d’origine project (launched in 2021), which featured soil samples from 60 countries, each accompanied by texts exploring their origins and symbolic meaning. The work examines the deep connection between humans and the earth.
In 2023, the artists continued this research during a multidisciplinary residency in Luxembourg, exploring the transformation of the material into the immaterial through digital creation, artificial intelligence, sound, image, and scientific experimentation (microscopy, 3D scanning, etc.).
The discovery of Tuvalu emerged as a powerful example: both real and symbolic, this island encapsulates urgent environmental, cultural, identity, and societal questions. The project highlights our relationship to nature and technology in the Anthropocene era, underlining the global interconnectedness of human actions.
Located in the Pacific, Tuvalu is one of the countries most threatened by climate change. Erosion, flooding, and saltwater intrusion are making land uninhabitable, while drought and ocean acidification are jeopardizing vital resources such as freshwater and fishing.
In response, the government is exploring unprecedented solutions: purchasing land abroad to relocate its population (notably in Australia, which agreed to offer climate asylum in 2023), and creating a digital twin of the archipelago in the metaverse to preserve its cultural and territorial heritage.
Tuvalu is set to become the first country to be entirely digitized. But this initiative raises a paradox: while aiming to safeguard a disappearing culture, it relies on energy-intensive technology that contributes to climate change. Can the cloud truly become a sustainable refuge?
The multidisciplinary team consists of a writer, a musician, and a visual artist who have been collaborating for several years. Their creative process combines the use of existing visual material (scientific imagery, future scenario models, graphs, photos, and video footage) with the production of new content, such as microscope videos of soil samples from Tuvalu, original texts, and sound compositions.
Eddi van Tsui is a collective founded by three artists who embrace a multidisciplinary approach that bridges stage creation and visual arts. Driven by curiosity and irreverence, they tackle socially and politically engaged — sometimes unsettling — themes, offering a critical lens on contemporary society. Their cross-disciplinary methods bring layered dramaturgical and conceptual depth to their works.
Since 2012, Sandy Flinto and Pierrick Grobéty have collaborated on numerous projects blending installation, video, performance, theatre, and contemporary dance. From 2018 to 2021, the duo was an associate artist at Kulturfabrik. In 2016, they began working closely with author and dramaturg Daniel Marinangeli, and in 2019, formalised their shared artistic language by founding the collective Eddi van Tsui.
Sandy Flinto (responsible for stage direction and visual art) lives and works between Luxembourg and France. She studied visual and performing arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ravenna (Italy) and later trained in physical theatre at the LFPT in Paris under Maxime Franzetti. Her work thrives on interdisciplinarity, experimentation, and the transposition of techniques across fields.
Pierrick Grobéty (responsible for sound creation) grew up in Rwanda, where he developed a passion for percussion. He trained in music composition, conducting, and performance, drawing inspiration from African traditional music, metal, and jazz. He is particularly interested in Pierre Schaeffer’s musique concrète and Bernie Krause’s research on biophony. Pierrick builds his own acoustic and digital instruments, managing the full sound process from creation to diffusion. Since 2010, he has specialised in sound design for live performance and contemporary art, developing bespoke conceptual and technical sound systems for each project.
Daniel Marinangeli (responsible for writing and dramaturgy) studied German literature and philosophy in Luxembourg and Germany. A voracious reader, he is passionate about dramatic literature and political, moral, and anthropological philosophy — a foundation for his dramaturgical practice. He critically examines contemporary society and the human condition, which he translates into narrative and dramatic structures. He writes in French, Luxembourgish, and German for the collective’s various projects.
