How was your dream ?

Thaddé COMAR

How was your dream ? is a photographic project realized during the Hong Kong protests between June and October 2019. This work deals with new forms of demonstration and insurrection in our post-contemporary era dominated by seamless control societies. Five years before, in Hong Kong, the “Umbrella Movement“ was quickly repressed by state and police violence. In 2019 the democratic uprising that began in May, gave itself the means to continue. Faced with a sophisticated arsenal of control (facial recognition, geolocation, carding, eavesdropping, infiltration, water cannons, tear gas, helicopter, sonic weapons, non-lethal rifles), the Hong Kong demonstrators have developed a repertoire of techniques based on principles of invisibility and intraceability (anonymity, lasers of blindness, pocket of faraday, vision by drones, masks of all kinds, encrypted communication etc...), allowing them to mitigate the effects of the repression. These new devices, which contribute to the transformation of the forms of struggle and resistance, however, push for the gradual erasure of individual singularities. In the future, will societies and sophisticated systems of control, force us to make our human singularities disappear ? Will this be done in favor of a new common identity ?

curators      Florent BASILETTI, Justine AYZAC, Baptiste PLEDEL 

partners      Fondation Act On Your Future, InnovaArt

Matériaulogie des images

La Cellule

This exhibition presents the results of two years of research in art and creation, as part of the Matériaulogie des images project, led by some forty researchers and students. Born of the encounter between Sophie Lécole Solnychkine’s research in aesthetics Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès) and Yannick Vernet’s La Cellule laboratory (École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie), this project explores the image through matter. It examines the relationship between images and the world’s materials (earth, plants, biological processes) as active forces. By rethinking the image through these substances, the project invites an ecocentric and interdisciplinary approach, integrating aesthetics, science and ecological humanities. This approach aims to reveal the interrelationships between image forms and their environments, by experimenting with new ways of producing and understanding images, as close as possible to the elements of the living world. Project funded by the French Ministry of Culture as part of the “Research in art and design schools“ (RADAR).

Game Boy

Pierre CORBINAIS

Launched in 1998, the Game Boy Camera turns Nintendo’s famous handheld console into a rudimentary camera. Although visionary in certain respects, such as the front camera, “sticker” filters and animated GIFs, the image quality remains limited: 128x112 pixels, four shades of gray, fixed focal length, with only contrast and brightness adjustments.

Pierre Corbinais uses his Game Boy Camera to capture anonymous reflections, moving crowds and street scenes. The images, constrained by the technical capabilities of the device, invite us to see the world differently. Every detail, even the most banal, becomes a subject of observation, underlining the idea that everything in our daily lives can be captured, monitored and archived.

In this exhibition, the black-and-white photographs, transcending the limits of the Game Boy Camera, question our contemporary realities and the boundary between creativity and control. They demonstrate how an object, however playful or nostalgic, can be diverted from its initial use to become a powerful tool for reflecting on our hyper-connected society.

curators                Florent BASILETTI, Vincent MONCHO

partners               Octobre Numérique - Faire monde, InnovaArt