Suburbe

The installation created for the Suburbe solo show combines cutting, moulding and video games. Allowing the pieces to support each other, the structures and surfaces come together in a chromatic interplay of materials. The various sculptures are made from surfaces, one from pieces of crepe paper glued together, the other from mirror glued onto polypropylene cut according to a principle that connects the volumes to their spatial planes. The structures are attached with strips of cut-up T-shirts.

These volumes seem to evoke an image without ever quite achieving it. Halfway between sculpture and architecture, all the works form fragments of urban landscapes that are both familiar and strange, with the cold aesthetics and hygienism of functional architecture and makeshift construction.

The title of the exhibition Suburbe simply aims to give an insight into the origin of the works: a bus shelter, a shopping trolley shelter, a barrier, automatic supermarket doors. « La banlieue est définie par une absence de présence urbaine, et elle échoue à se constituer en tant qu’expérience »¹ .

The poverty of materials and symbolism in these peripheral spaces limits us to immediate consumption. Yet these enveloping architectural structures interest the artist precisely because they do not demand any authenticity of experience. Their planned obsolescence quickly transforms them into ruins, emptied of their hygienic and regulatory functions.

In this installation, the public can play the flash game Sans titre (pointer et cliquer n°3). This interactive flash animation ironically illustrates the interior of these commercial spaces, where the experience of reality is reduced to a series of clichés. Through generic interactions, the viewer explores a virtual space that blends the public and private spheres. The ‘point-and-click’ interface is a type of video game in which the player navigates the screen by clicking on interactive elements, with arrows allowing them to move from one image to another, creating the illusion of movement through space. Activities are coded and regulated. Both assignments of conformity and paths to emancipation, the game’s predefined actions echo the rituals of everyday life. Musician Michael Hoh created the soundscape for Sans titre (pointer et cliquer n°3). Interested in functional music, he worked on this project around elevator music. The dialogues, inspired by adventure games, expose the artificiality of the place and play with the notion of gameplay.

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