After speaking to Sylvain Couzinet-Jacques at length last summer I understood it better, if still not completely. His enthusiasm, sparkling eyes and endless stream of words clarified why he applied for a residency in northern Greece in 2016. In Kavala to be precise. For him it was the right environment in which to gather photographic material for his Parallax Maps (to premiere probably around 2019 /2010), a video in which 3-D realities and the real world combine to form a new world, a new territory. He was creating that territory based on digital information, on facts derived from scientific documents, archaeological studies and economic reports, as well as on the physicality of existing cities, for which Kavala had the right characteristics.
The investigation of a demarcated territory, the lending of new significance to a territory by hacking it, even the building of a new, utopian territory could be seen as typical of Couzinet-Jacques’ artistic practice. This comes to the fore very clearly in Eden, his most extensive project to date and one that is still ongoing.
Attracted by the paradox of the name of the little town of Eden in North Carolina and its decline as a result of the economic crisis, Couzinet-Jacques decided in 2015 to buy the town’s dilapidated schoolhouse. After renovating it himself, he painted it fire-engine red. The empty 1884 building became both a sculpture and a bright-red symbol of the economic crisis.
The artist then investigated the building’s territory by scanning it millimetre by millimetre. He published some of the scans in a book he made with graphic designer Fred Cave. In theory you could use the scans to build a scale model of part of the building, but of course no one would do that, as the book is so beautiful. For an exhibition at Aperture in New York Couzinet- Jacques inventively used materials that could contribute to the further embellishment of the schoolhouse. The building was also used by other artists, who made new work there, and by local people, who contributed their presence, curiosity, stories and practical help.
Eden grew to become a hybrid of sculpture, photography, performance and architecture. A dilapidated building lacking a function was turned into a demarcated empty space that filled up with all kinds of collective stories and experiences. A symbol of the economic crisis, it became a utopian micro-world of solidarity and collectivity, a new territory where there is room for something to which Couzinet-Jacques attaches great importance: re-enchantment through art.
To talk of re-enchantment implies that the world has become disenchanted. Many people have a feeling that something is missing in daily life, something is broken, that the magic and astonishment have gone from our everyday lives. German sociologist Max Weber studied this phenomenon in detail at the start of the twentieth century, taking his lead from Friedrich von Schiller. He believed that the magical forces that once determined the fate of human beings had been ousted by secularization and by modern science, bureaucracy, the law, and policy-making. He called this process ‘the disenchantment of the world’. It produced a world that was predictable, understandable and less mysterious than before. Of course it would not be right to see Weber’s concept as applicable in every respect to the work of Couzinet-Jacques, but it does touch upon his oeuvre, in which the concept of re-enchantment in a world in crisis (influenced by immaterial data circulation and real estate crises) is central.
Our outlook is clouded by crisis after crisis, on a global scale. People see only what they believe to be possible, reinforced by the kind of visual representation that supports the idea of the crises. Couzinet-Jacques strives to broaden our outlook once more. He does so in a literal sense by creating new, physical territories, like Eden, that are available for re-enchantment, for astonishment, solidarity and collectivity. He also does so by offering new forms of representation of those territories. To that end he deconstructs the central idea of classic photography, namely the documentation of the real world. His images of desolate scenes are composed of unnatural, bright, intense colours. They evoke a post-apocalyptic feeling. The use of colour filters causes confusion and holds the attention by means of a seductive beauty. He uses his photography as material, as a tool, to give a twist to reality and in that sense to construct a new territory that lies somewhere in between 3-D reality and documentary photography. For him this forms an essential component of larger conceptual works such as Parallax Maps, Eden and Sub Rosa, which always seem to be in motion and to have no unequivocal and finalized end result yet.
Couzinet-Jacques worked on Sub Rosa during his residency at Casa de Velazquez, the French Academy in Madrid. It culminated in a performance during the annual public opening. The wonderful Latin expression ‘sub rosa’ literally means ‘under the rose’, and it is used in English to indicate secrecy. Sensors were placed in the garden of Casa de Velazquez that picked up live data from the local ecosystem of the garden. Some of the sensors detected fluctuations in temperature and light during the day. Others were sensitive to sudden changes caused by the movements and sounds of visitors. The data were sent to a modular synthesizer in Couzinet-Jacques’ studio, which created self-generative soundscapes. The rhythms were dependent on the parameters of the garden, and the soundscape could be heard both in the studio and in the garden. It was also broadcast from a barely legal FM transmitter. During the day performers walked around the garden with small radios. At the end of their walks through the garden they stepped into a mysterious black car.
Casa de Velazquez is located next to Palacio de La Moncloa, the official residence for the prime minister of Spain and an area that is home to many national government buildings. The weekly meetings of the Council of Ministers are also held in the Palace. Needless to say that the secrecy of data they send floating through the air is essential. Couzinet-Jacques metaphorically hacked this data through the roses and the ecosystem of the garden. With this symbolic act he was investigating once again a demarcated space, appropriating it and giving it a new meaning. He thereby produced new images by means of a vagarious and subversive performance.
Sub Rosa is embedded in an artistic practice of photography, installation, performance, architecture and sound, one that in its ultimate form produces a poetic, multi-layered experience that appeals to a variety of senses. It is an artistic practice that does not lose itself in a fetish for experiments with materiality and cutting-edge tools only but adopts a critical stance towards contemporary society. An artistic practice that has a soul and connects with people without descending into facile populism.