24 Aug 2011

Participate in 'Ebb and Flow, the Internet cave ', exhibition by Fred Forest

In the 1970s, as a pioneer of video art, and media and network art, Fred Forest, who was born in 1933, ushered in the concept of sociological art. Then in the 1980s he initiated the concept of the aesthetics of communication. The ethical and aesthetic dimensions join together to put the human factor at the heart of his approach, especially through the involvement of different kinds of public in his works.

His project for Les Moulins Albigeois questions Plato's cave in the Internet age. The shadows in Plato's allegory are transposed in contemporary forms, by a staged presentation of the public strolling about accompanied by their shadows, with texts an video projections operating alternately. Other shadows and participations arrive through the network of Internet connections in the world via the wesite : www.flux-et-reflux.net

A connection kit, in the form of a minimal recording studio and a user's manual is proposed to the 120 French Institutes throughout the world, in conjunction with the French Institute in Paris, as well as other venues, such as the Fred Forest exhibitions currently on view in New York and Sao Paulo. A twofold network is thus activated, by the physical presence of the visitors in the exhibition at Les Moulins and by the virtual presence of connected publics.

Fred Forest is at work on a gigantic worldwide network, whose virtual and real participants give shape to the show, connection by connection. The artist has devised his project like a screenplay whose participating casts make the film by constantly renewing it. This collective work is a metaphor of a democratic dynamic. A journey like an initiatory plunge into the belly of a society hallmarked by information.


Curator: Jackie-Ruth Meyer

With the support of DICRéAM Ministère de la culture et de la communication, CNC, CNL
En partenariat avec E-TERA / Kiwi, Cie des Composeurs, Motobix, Darty, Association Le Fil, GMEA - Centre National de Création Musicale d'Albi-Tarn

Thanks to Alain Monty, dresseur du centre d'éducation canine de Nice St Isidore et Rocco le Rottweiller, Hôtel Mercure Albi, Cave de Labastide de Levis, Marie Catalogne, chambre d'hôtes Les Platanes.

With Institut Français, Residency Unlimited, Cuchifritos Gallery, Université de Brasilia, UNESP, Universidade Estadual Paulista 'Julio de Mesquita Filho', Maison des Sciences de l'Homme Paris Nord, Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts de Beyrouth, DUPLEX/Galerija10m2