RAW LOOP

2023

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6 kinetic devices (matt PMMA housing, motor, electronics, arduino, transformer, 60 UV-recto-verso prints on polypropylene)

About 30 x 24 x 20 cm

This set of kinetic devices is reminiscent of mutoscopes - these pre-cinema machines in which the very quick successions of images affixed around an axis gave the viewer the illusion of movement. Here, the images, taken from a selection of negatives in the Pentacon company archives, are of different kinds: the views of the the long, smooth, carefully manicured hands of models manipulating equipment for illustrative purposes in instruction manuals are facing reframed views of reportage images, highlighting a profusion of micro-gestures that reflect the social organization of the company. The precise gestures of female employees on workbenches or assembly lines dialogue with those of men in suits signing contracts, hanging up medals, shaking hands, drinking Russian champagne, smoking Cuban cigars or American cigarettes at parties that look pretty wild, in well-oiled rituals.

Thus, each display features a different type of image, suggesting the mechanisms at work in this organization: the official showcase, the "mass" work and the "underbelly of the regime". While the ensemble shows the language of bodies, highlighting the time and collective energy required to design, develop, manufacture and market the models that came out of the factories, the photographic apparatus also serves as a pretext for evoking the state apparatus. The images scroll by in a perpetual motion tinged with a comedy of repetition, while the different cadences of the devices and their motors generate clicks, whirrs and squeaks reminiscent of the factory activities.