Fabien Zocco

Installation

The expression mind-body problem is an umbrella term for the various theories that, from Descartes up to recent developments in the neurosciences, have attempted to draw out the thread linking the human body and mind. These links constitute so many unresolved enigmas regarding the material substrate of thought, or regarding the possibility of a reasoning machine. All these enigmas were with me on this project, and even determined its title.

At once an immersive micro-structure, a writing process and a sound form, A Mind Body Problem invites us to experience a disorientation. The device takes the form of a penetrable cylinder, its inner wall giving out a uniform white light. Enveloped by this immaculate screen, the viewer finds that their field of vision is completely taken up by the luminous space, causing them to lose all their spatial bearings.

A voice is heard in the heart of the space thus defined. It gives rise to a text generated in accordance with a protocol implying appropriated artificial intelligence software. This voice, distributed on several tracks, doubles over and evolves continuously in accordance with the non-linear, combinatory score. The piece institutes a zone of uncertainty, between the human and the machine. It gives rise to a process of subjectification that is activated from a truly a-human (un)consciousness. This imposes its paradoxical presence in its very disappearance, and seeks expression through a body reduced to its most immaterial trace: the voice.

Fabien Zocco

«Fabien Zocco explores the artistic potential of technological out-sourcing, applications and other software. Playing on the endless possibilities offered by the digital network, he appropriates the icons of digital popular culture and virtual aesthetics to create architectures, forms or futuristic stories. With a hint of derision, he questions our relationship to the technologies that have invaded our daily lives and investigates our relationship to the virtual.» (Sonia Recasens). His work has been shown in France (Le Fresnoy, FRAC Poitou Charentes, Palais de Tokyo...), in Mexico (Institut Français d’Amérique Latine in Mexico), in Canada (UQTR gallery, Trois-Rivières), in Poland (A-I-R program, Wroclaw), in Belgium (Transcultures, Mons), in Italy (LALD, Polignano a Mare) and online (The Wrong - New digital art biennial).