Artist Suzanne Husky presents participative installation at Ruinart Art Bar Frieze Los Angeles fair

Frieze and Ruinart have selected artist Suzanne Husky for the third R.U.in.Art commission at the Los Angeles art fair, which runs in until February 20. Titled Dam Beverly Hills!, her installation spotlights the vital role played by beavers in maintaining biodiversity in California. Since 2019, the Champagne Maison has invited an artist to realize an immersive experience for the Ruinart Art Bar during the Frieze contemporary art fair.

Suzanne Husky’s participative installation presents the beaver as an ally of regenerative agriculture and a spiritual leader. The vital role of the animal is spotlighted through artifacts and events, during which Suzanne Husky explains the story of the beaver in California and all we can learn from it.

Noting that the name Beverly means ‘beaver clearing’, Suzanne Husky pays tribute to the well-known animal, showing how the dams beavers build are essential to mitigating the effects of the ecological crisis. She emphasizes that beaver dams help slow soil erosion, filter heavy metals and offer shelter for insects and fish.

In exchange for a verbal commitment to embrace the environmentally sustainable ways of the beaver, visitors are invited to take away a keepsake in the form of a beaver ’chew’, the gnawed wooden sticks used to construct dams.

Ruinart has pledged a contribution from the sale of glasses of champagne during the fair to the ‘Bring Back the Beaver’ campaign organized by the Sonoma County-based Occidental Arts & Ecology Center.

Suzanne Husky’s installation echoes Ruinart’s many initiatives to protect the environment and preserve biodiversity in Champagne, including its collaboration with Reforest’Action and the 100% recyclable ‘second skin’ case for bottles of Ruinart champagne.