God's room

Produced and shown by le Fresnoy, Studio national des arts contemporains, for "Panorama 18" exhibition, curated by Laurent Le Bon, october to december 2016. 

Lien : https://www.lefresnoy.net/panorama18/artwork/689/la-chambre-de-dieu/gabriel-desplanque

Exhibited for "Offline Browser" exhibition, curated by Chia-Wei Hsu & Fong-Ray Hsu, from october 2018 to january  2019 in Hong Gah Museum, Taipei, Taiwan.

Lien : https://www.hong-gah.org.tw/3457?lang=en

The room of God" is a sound installation for an office, four ficus, a fir tree spitting snow and animated objects.

Different voices speak, talk to each other, contradict each other, get upset, sing and try to find meaning to the existence of this room. Existential questions mingle with others much more down to earth. Doubt, anger, humor, take turn and inhabite the space. 

The installation

The sound editing (15 'loop) lead the installation progress; the different objects acting according to what it "tells".Four ficuses draw an invisible rectangle and limit the exhibition space. On each ficus, a speaker and a lamp are hung allowing the spacialisation of the sound and the modulation of the lighting throughout the installation length. The space is only illuminated by this light device sometimes dark, sometimes sifted or very bright.

At the center of the installation, a freely inspired desk of the 50's and its chair. On the desktop, five objects are laid: a computer screen broadcasting English subtitles of the image and sound, a dot matrix printer spitting compulsively drawings on paper covering the floor of the installation, a vibrating mobile phone, a dancer's figure moving when it likes the music and a bell punctuating the installation. The desk top is crossed by a metal tube on which is placed a small 3D model lit by led ribbons reproducing the space in which we find ourselves. In the back of the room, a tree glows and spits artificial snow at the conclusion of the sound design.

The space reminds us of administrative offices. A place familiar but somehow strange, a little too clean and tidy to make us feel really comfortable.    

The sound design

God's room tells, testifies, reveals itself and confides

Several voices add up, subtract, cancel or amplify each other. Voices serious, acute, discreet, whispering, shouting and which from time to time agree to sing. A chorus of thunderous and contradictory voices. A room that echoes insignificant facts as essential, mixes, mixes, cuts and bring them together. "The room of God" does not really talk about what we do in a room, it speaks about what we do to fill the world.
The room will talk about the word itself and the difficulty of getting along in the media hubbub. Objects may be more interconnected than we have ever been, but they face other challenges: carrying the hopes of the human species. This room is multiple and singular, thoughtful and spontaneous, candid and jaded, full and empty at the same time. At times, in search of intimacy while others, it is an open space, an infinite landscape.
She's never twice the same.

Sound editing : Valentine Gelin
Sound mixing : Sébastien Cabour
Programation and mecanization : Metalu