2022
Installation
Etched lenses, metal structures, LED torches, stones
Using a database of portraits of missing people worldwide, an artificial intelligence created composite images within its latent space, thereby assembling a collection of personal stories. Through an experimental optical method, the portraits were invisibly engraved onto lenses. They stay hidden until illuminated by direct light, when the faces suddenly become visible.
The project originates from the artist’s response to military dictatorships like those of Pinochet in Chile and Videla in Argentina, where opponents were made to “disappear”, often by having their bodies dumped at sea. Families were left waiting, unable to find their loved ones or mourn their loss. The work places the viewer in a state of latency, somewhere between memory and melancholy, through faces that are half-real and half-fictional.
With the support of
Programmes Mondes Nouveaux
Ministère de la culture
Plan de relance
EU Next Generation
© J.J. SEROL, L. Bandie, S.Roland, S. Lomprez