“Like someone laughing in the eyes of his sons-in-law” Made by Fabien Zocco in 2016, L’Entreprise de déconstruction théotechnique organises a collision between the Old Testament and a mechanical ordering that erodes its meaning. The first alteration consists in introducing the biblical text into a succession of computer algorithms. The text is thus interfered with by random constraints that deform its meaning. This results in expressions such as Like someone laughing in the eyes of his sons-in-law”, “ I’m going to fructify you a lot”. These alterations have ambiguous effects. Some of the resulting propositions are intelligible, or even have an abstract poetic quality due to the semantic or sonorous distortions. Others, in contrast, show the malevolent workings of language, creating a void in its capacity to make sense. After the manipulation of text, of its materiality and meaning, comes a second, literal manipulation which amplifies its alteration. The propositions are spoken by computerised voices on smartphones attached to moving robot arms, which are themselves linked to a semi-circular metal structure resting on the floor. However, this intensification of technique (artefacts linked to artefacts) leads to something other than itself. The voices are heard solo, in duos or as a polyphony. The movements of the arms are like an almost animal choreography. That is the meaning of this society of robots which collectively articulates fragments of the Old Testament: combining deconstructed language (both written and oral), prehension, the divine, the technological, the animal and the human to create a proximity between them or, on the contrary, ensuring that they dis-identify themselves. Pierre Tillet, critic