New Media N°1

KONSTHALLE MALMÖ SUÈDE
22 mars - 19 mai 1975

Concept

Localisation/delocalisation, presence at a distance, outside/inside, awareness of real time, the appearance of images and the unpredictability of events, the linking of two parallel and contingent realities - all these notions, already present in this installation, prefigure the theories of the Aesthetics of Communication developed by Mario Costa and Fred Forest in the 1980s.
Audience participation is required to operate one of the two cameras. The aim of this installation is also to experiment with and investigate space, by dynamically linking two given spaces through their mediatisation.

Device

A video camera, mounted outside on a tree, captures in its field of vision a portion of the public square (urban space) adjacent to the Konsthalle buildings. The image is transmitted via a closed circuit TV system to a first monitor, which is part of the artist's installation in the exhibition. A second, portable camera is placed in the hands of visitors, who are placed in the position of having to find the 'point of view' determined by the external camera by moving around.
On the control screen of a second monitor participating in the installation and sending back the image of the mobile video, the artist has drawn the main lines that structure the reconstructed space on the curved surface of the glass with a felt-tip pen: perpendicular lines of buildings, street lamps, information panels, etc., horizontal lines of the ground, curves of trees, etc. The lines are then placed in the visitor's hands.
Artists invited to take part in this group exhibition include Christian Boltanski, Paul-Armand Gette, David Hubler and Annette Messager.

• Catalogue New-Media N° 1, Konsthalle Malmö, Suède.
• Sydsvenska Dagbladet, Malmö, Suède, 23 mars 1975.
• Autres articles, voir bibliographie générale sur le site webnetmuseum.org