Born in 1980 in Paris, Laurent Pernot studied at Le Fresnoy national studio of contemporary arts. Currently working in Paris, he has nonetheless been part of numerous international residencies and exhibitions since the early 2000s. He has gained international renown with works considered both experimental and immersive, refusing the limitations of a particular medium. Pernot plays with notions of the visible and the invisible, the immateriality of time and memory. He works by contrast: identity, the origins and limits of life are recurring themes he likes to oppose to ideas of modernity and mass culture. His works speaks of the both the individual and society, and wants to engage with the viewer, with whom he sees the relationship with his work as crucial to its meaning.
Pernot's Common Heritage Project explores the themes of nature and humankind, past and present, and the passing of cultural heritage and skills from one generation to the next, which resonates with the story of the Hennessy Maison. For this, he chose a screen projection combining numerical images with shadow puppet tradition, modernity with a timeless and universal imagery. On the screen, the sea, the sun, and grapevine roots all merge together to create the landscape of Pernot's theatre, that evolves and repeats itself. In this decor, two silhouettes of men sharing the secret of a perpetual tradition and evolution. This piece, highly symbolic, represents the harmony between nature and her craftsmen, with motifs evoking the Hennessy heritage throughout time.