Energy Zone 1995

Centre d'exposition de Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada
Paper, metal, halogen lamp, shadow — Integrated in the exhibition space
Video by Sébastien Bage

The installation Energy Zone was created for EXPRESSION, Centre d’exposition de Saint Hyacinthe in Quebec, Canada. The work is inspired by two telecommunication tower sites: Mount Royal in Montreal and Mount Tokushima on the island of Shikoku in Japan. Our presence on these sites gives us the feeling of being at geographical points of importance on the planet where a large quantity of energy is dissipated throughout the space.

The installation, Energy Zone, was created for the exhibition space of the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo. The work deals with the systemic phenomenon of information and telecommunication technologies. Our contemporary landscape is busy with radio and telecommunication towers. The wave is an element of which we have become more and more conscious. It travels through the air invisibly and cannot be seen by the eye though its presence is significant in our environment. Be it sound wave, visual wave, or telematics, it transmits information. Between the wave’s materiality produced by the transmitter and its potentiality produced by the receiver, the wave’s real presence is acknowledged by the projected shadow of the object in Energy Zone. The shadow and the object totally invade the space and the spectator is invited to stroll through an information system. He/she senses only the essential.

In Energy Zone the spectator appropriates the space and for the same reason the space appropriates the spectator. All of a sudden we are part of these waves and we become conscious that the shadows are as present as our bodies. This undulatory energy surrounds us, energizes us but it also makes us frantic, ready to feel what is around us and within us.