Je n'y suis pour personne, 2007
Narrative installation, duration: 3 min per cycle (five "doghorndogs" [synthetic fur, polystyrene foam, horn-speaker], motion detectors, five-channel computer-controlled sound/light system)
text video
The oscillation between security and aggression, surveillance and protection is nourishing a sentiment of paranoia, characterized by both power and victimization. The rules of the game seem to favour those who are able to deceit their enemies. Constant recourse to simulation and substitutes has finally shaped an absurd world based around a machinistic and infallible logic.
"Je n’y suis pour personne" stages defence systems literally incorporating canine alarms. A zone is defined by presence detectors which function here like interfaces. Once the limit is overstepped, there is a reaction, even interaction, except that the signals are always interpreted as potential aggression, hence the response is univocal…
Slowly, though, the initial attack on the visitor transforms into an audiovisual spectacle, eventually exposing the hidden attackers as harmless creatures which become but actors on a stage. In turn, the aggressed visitor is gradually put into the comfortable position of a spectator who can watch the show unfold.
Realised with a production grant by the Maison Folie de Moulins, Lille (F).