No. 241
Cenotaph 0
By : paramonumental
Entrant’s location : France
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Description
A global phenomena lies before you. Whole buildings, districts and cities are being built at incredible speed at the four corners of the world. Their buildings all share one particularity, they are all abandoned before their construction ends, suspended between work in progress and complete ruin. These constructions are known as tofu buildings, instant ruins, and many more, but everyone knows them by the name of ghost cities. Cénotaph 0 is an automated installation that builds and un-builds an infinite concrete model inspired by these real landscapes. This liminal state of in-between exists in the entire installation, the elements are produced using an experimental mix of computer assisted and artisanal techniques, their slimness and brittleness induced many broken elements during production and even during presentations when the machine makes mistakes. These broken elements accumulate in a second inner landscape in a tumulus-like shape faintly lit by the machine. Lastly, a moving surveillance-camera system recomposes a live traveling shot inside the model that loops endlessly and is presented first to the visitor, playing with his sense of scale and perspective. A Cenotaph is a funerary monument that contains no human remnants, it is purely symbolic by nature.
What did you create?
Cenotaph 0 is an automated installation that builds and un-builds an infinite concrete model inspired by these real landscapes. This liminal state of in-between exists in the entire installation, the elements are produced using an experimental mix of computer assisted and artisanal techniques, their slimness and brittleness induced many broken elements during production and even during presentations when the machine makes mistakes. These broken elements accumulate in a second inner landscape in a tumulus-like shape faintly lit by the machine. Lastly, a moving surveillance-camera system recomposes a live traveling shot inside the model that loops endlessly and is presented first to the visitor, playing with his sense of scale and perspective.
Why did you make it?
I encountered ghost cities while working on another project in China, I was deeply moved by these eery man-made landscapes. Apart from their sort of sculptural and skeletal beauty i felt they carried a deeper truth about our contemporary and evermore technological time. I am inspired by cross-disciplinary experimental art, architecture and design studios around the seventies in Europe (Superstudio and Archigram) but also earlier in Japan (Metabolism Movement). I feel by experimentation and projected visions of possible utopian or dystopian futures they tried to question the essence and meaning of human built spaces and environments. I am trying to channel this openness and collaborative aspects through my work. Cenotaph 0 depicts an unwanted environment, an hyper-structured, speculative and dehumanized tangible glitch produced by our current OS. Even though it's regularity is maintained by the machine, hope arises in the micro-collapses that form naturally and slowly produce the organic shape bellow. A new ground zero.
How did you make it?
I made the installation during my second year in Fresnoy Studio National des Arts Contemporains where i learned contemporary and computer assisted production techniques. I collaborated with Nicolas Guichard a French programmer and electronics expert coming from the field of theater. The concrete elements took quite a bite of experimentation and I worked with two students coming from Beaux Arts during a few months.
Your entry’s specification
1500x1500X2000mm 550kg Aluminium structure, Valchromat wood, concrete and steel sculptural elements, electromagnetic crane system and live video system transported in two international transport crates (1500x1500x1000mm and 1500x1500x400mm).