What do skis, a snorkel, a 3D printer and a spy plane have in common? All these inventions were created or perfected by drawing inspiration from nature. This exhibition highlights the animals, plants and minerals that served as models for these innovations.
Nature is full of inventive solutions, the result of four billion years of evolution and selection, whose effectiveness has been proven on a living scale. Numerous examples from botany, zoology and geology have given rise to remarkable biomimetic applications: lotus and hydrophobic coatings; burdock and Velcro; morpho butterflies and Morphotex textiles; spider silk and synthetic silk, mussel byssus and adhesives, etc.
By creating a dialogue between the natural environment and the human innovations it inspires, Mimêsis invites the public to rediscover nature from a new angle: that of its intelligence, diversity and inestimable value. It also offers us a lesson in humility, as humans must mobilise complex and often energy-intensive means to try to match what nature accomplishes with an elegant economy of means.