To kick off the 2020-2021 season and, at the same time, the second cycle of our Frontière programmation, “Remix and Networks: Challenging Boundaries,” TOPO welcomes September 9 to October 10, 2020 the immersive and interactive installation Plongeons, by multimedia artist Sven. Based on photographs of historical events, the project becomes an experience thanks to the augmented reality interface developed by the artist in collaboration with creative developer Paul Gascou-Vaillancourt.

In flagrant denial of context, the artist revisits photographs of world heritage sites in the form of minimalist compositions, presenting a falsified interpretation of them using an augmented reality application. At first glance, isolated figures seem to be voluntarily plunging into an environment that is neither particularly reassuring nor specifically hostile, just completely empty. United, pure, and unaltered, the monochrome backgrounds evoke the blue and green screens used for special effects in film. Added to this palette is red, the third primary component of additive synthesis.

Using a dedicated app available via the App Store, visitors are invited to revisit the images using a smartphone or tablet. Acting as scanners and revealing other images—virtual ones this time—that are superimposed on the printed photos, the mobile devices add a manipulated dimension to the original composition.

The art of falsification is now within everyone's reach thanks to image processing software and countless photo editing applications. Although the dissemination of manipulated, truncated, or falsified images is not a new concern, it is no longer the preserve of experts alone. By deliberately plunging a photograph into a kind of zero degree of representation and adding a remix of parasitic enriched content, the artist alters the collective memory to a tipping point between documentary truth and fictional manipulation.

Plongeons
Available for free download on the App Store