ARTWORK

audio micro-sensor, Arduino board, 6 light bulbs, suspended from a metal structure found onsite

ARTISTIC APPROACH

The responsive intervention asks visitors to “leave your message” which is transcoded into a light play.

SITE

Place Sidi Abdelkader

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

The bulbs act as a visual metaphor. This work is based on the misappropriation of our senses, by evoking them, questioning them, and putting them on first. Make the senses the equivalent of a material. The voices and noises are now transformed into code and the luminous noises are simulated. The light evokes not ears but eyes, eyes that touch and hear. This cycle can be defined as a round trip of spectator’s presence, and in this way how the sources of light belong to the artwork and either to the spectator. This installation becomes an “operator of sense“, following an expression of Jacques Aumont. This means that the work is auto-exposing, auto-present, and auto-generating.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2016 | Sousse | Elbirou Art Gallery

DEVELOPMENT

2017 | Sousse | Institute of Fine Arts | MA
2016 | Sousse | Institute of Fine Arts | BA
a href=”http://indjerba.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Benchikha_jihen_CV-1.pdf”>CV

ARTIST’S FEEDBACK

Djerba was an inspiring place to work in and to question all its historical, abandoned places and corner, and to get in contact with some Djerbian people knowing and learning from them their stories and traditions. SEE DJERBA was a success for all of us, ten days passed away but we kept the wonderful moments, even if we have been through stressful and difficult moments. For me, it was great to work at “Place Sidi Abdelkader” which has been a coffee shop before. I was intrigued by the idea that the place was a place where people used to meet, drink, play cards, and talk. For a while, it has been an abandoned place. It brought the idea to work on “collective memory” to revive this place in a different context. I made a box where people could leave a message. When talking to the box, the lighting of the space started to change. I was excited about people leaving messages about their life, dreams, hopes, and others start to singing, yelling. And this is what interested me the most, the idea about connection, and interaction between people and the artwork.

VIDEO

PHOTOS

Brahim Gueddich