Côme Di MEGLIO

Côme Di MEGLIO Oceanic Sensation - Contemplative Worlds, 2025 20x30 cm digital print on Canson Edition Etching Rag 310g. Oceanic Sensation is an experience of encountering a mysterious and fascinating phenomenon: living light, bioluminescence. It is a face-to-face encounter with the microscopic organisms that illuminate the darkness of the ocean’s depths. Like an enigmatic language, a source of wonder. In an alcove plunged into complete darkness, participants are invited to take turns meditating before a source of living light. Faced with a presence from another world, they quiet their minds, opening themselves up to be filled by it. Beyond fascination, a sense of strangeness arises: that of being in connection with a presence from elsewhere, from an unknown world. It observes us. From the shifting patterns of light emerge animals, faces, and symbols. It is as if the imagination were becoming the mediator of an interspecies dialogue. Little by little, this presence allows itself to be tamed; the light becomes a force that envelops us and transforms us. What remains from this experience is the sensation of having come into contact with another form of life. What moves me about this encounter is the way this light affects our presence, as if each of our cells remembered its marine origin. As if this communion were a return to the Source: the oceanic sensation. This photograph is a portrait of one of the people who meditated in the presence of this bioluminescent phenomenon. Côme Di Meglio (born in 1988) is an artist based in Marseille who graduated from ENSAD Paris in 2014. His work revolves around creating spaces and experiences to inhabit. Featured at Art Paris Art Fair, Milan Design Week (Alcova, 2022), and the ChangeNOW Salon (Grand Palais Ephémère, 2024), he develops works that foster states of presence, openness, and connection with the environment. Winner of the Planète Solidaire Prize (Art of Change 21 & Ruinart, 2021), *Le Chant des Origines* (2024) is part of the Ruinart collection. Since his work *MycoTemple* (2023), he has been using mycelium to create immersive architectures whose life cycle—from growth to decay—is an integral part of the work. In 2025, as part of the European S+T+ARTS program, he is once again developing large-scale mycelium temples and tools to measure their social impact.