Production le Fresnoy, studio national des arts contemporains
“Poised midway between the unvisualizable cosmic vastness of curved spacetime and the dubious shadowy flickerings of charged quanta, we human beings, more like rainbows and mirages than like raindrops or boulders, are unpredictable self-writing poems - vague, metaphorical, ambiguous, sometimes exceedingly beautiful.” I Am a Strange Loop, Douglas R. Hofstadter
Je(u) is an interactive installation made possible through an elaborate mathematical framework, transforming our perception of the “self” into something fleeting, unstable, and ephemeral. When visitors enter the installation’s detection zone, their image first appears in front of them, then gradually dissolves into particles. These fragments remain within the virtual space even after the visitors leave, merging with those left behind by previous participants. Together, they transform, interact, and compose a constantly evolving landscape. The color of the particles shifts according to the clothing worn by each visitor, inscribing every presence into the memory of the system. The movements of the visitors generate a dance of particles, where individual traces communicate with one another. The boundary between “you” and “me” dissolves: each extends into the other, each partially inhabits the other. The “I” (je) thus becomes a “game” (jeu). Identity emerges through interaction; it is a social and cultural process in constant flux. Je(u) offers an experience in which the self appears as a collective improvisation -both real and illusory- a fragile spectacle that continuously forms, transforms, and disappears, like a mirage.
