2022
Installation
Etched lenses, metal structures, LED torches, stones
Drawing from a database containing portraits of missing individuals from around the world, an artificial intelligence has constructed generic images of these people in its latent space, thus building up a collection of personal stories. Following an experimental optical process, the portraits were secretly inscribed on the lenses, which appear to be devoid of images until they are illuminated by direct light.
The project stems from the artist’s outrage at certain military dictatorships, such as Pinochet’s in Chile and Videla’s in Argentina.
In these regimes, opponents are often made to “disappear” by dumping their bodies in the sea. Families are kept waiting, unable to find their loved ones and mourn their loss. The artist takes us into this state of latency, somewhere between memories and melancholy, through a series of strange faces that are half-real, 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