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Through films and sculptures of robots indifferent to the world, a French visual artist questions the future of humanity at the Venice Biennale in a disturbing exhibition.
Immersed from beginning to end in darkness barely dimmed by the faint glow (amber, greyish or greenish) of the projected films, Pierre Huyghe’s exhibition, at the Pointe de la Doua, in Venice, makes one shudder as his works cross creatures or embryos of beings living their lives in cover, moving or thinking, remaining impenetrable, almost indifferent to the viewer. It’s as if they don’t belong in the same world or even the same era as ours.
Silent ballet
From the first room, a ghostly being is presented on a giant screen, which the booklet defines as “an empty human form, without brain and face» – because instead there is a black hole. Against the background of the dark desert, she stands still or convulses and the title, Liminally which is also the one from the series, says that she is in the preliminary stage of learning or metamorphosis.
She’s not the only one. Here and there wander individuals with a robotic approach, their faces covered by a helmet that captures information and that will eventually allow them to develop their own language and refine their sensitivity. these Idioms they are similar to artificial intelligence in the flesh, and the show is like the exhibition that precedes it which is projected into the near future where human beings will no longer have their place and at the very least will have to