Impressions

Sculpture, 2022

Metal, paint, acid, chinese ink, resin, pigment

100 × 67 cm

Series of sculptural reliefs depicting impressions of the architecture of data centre and its surrounding made after visiting the site. First, the image was drawn by plasma cutter onto the primed metal plate. Than sentences describing the feelings of the site were etched by acid. Font “Chateaux” used for the writing was especially designed in collaboration with typographer Filip Kraus. The whole plate is covered with epoxy to connect all the layers into one, where each layer competes for the attention of viewer. The hollow holes at the edges offers the spectator to symbolically connect the piece with what is familiar.

Sculpture, 2019

Aluminium, bolts, steel cable

2 × 266 × 218 cm

Sculpture levitating above the head of the visitor, marking territory without interrupting the movement. Occupying the untouchable space above. Nothing less, nothing more, maybe in the shape of a cloud.

Video, 2022

Full HD Video, colour with sound

9:19 minutes

My aim was to document Data Centre at Gravelines near Calais in France as if I were documenting certain castle: by editing I artistically deconstructed the architecture of data centres in order to examine the defensive architecture that one can find in specific location of the biggest data centre in Europe that is possible to publicly find. In this context, I will point out how the existence of virtual world is bounded to the physical conditions represented by informational nodes, such as that of northern of France in Gravelines. Indeed, the infrastructure of these informational nodes often copies the old trade routes guarded by fortified castles or settlements. The plot of the film explores the physical existence of data centre in Gravelines by zooming on fragments of its architecture and by wandering throughout open landscape around the building. Through the video footage and the sound, the viewer will witness the crossed vision of the construction of the landscape similar to those of ancient castles.

I don't know if it's because of the (board and proto-larp) games I extensively played when I was younger, but sometimes I feel like a peasant living outside the centre. If there is any danger lurking around, like the ghost of Corona or War, I run back to the castle with the other terrified villagers and leave my life behind. I'm not proud of it, but it's true. Inside, the bustle is full of anticipation of things to come, gossip and anticipation of distant violence. But what if the gate is closed and you are not the noble man just to walk in? How do you grasp the place if you are not granted the entry and you must wait another couple of hundred years when these sites become monuments to visit in order? Welcome to the online age. If you look at the landscape, there is not much to see, maybe a bit more to hear but probably less to smell. There are places that you can find or desire, and places overfull of more and more people. In the current situation, we just realised how much separated and different we are even that we are for example European. Besides that, this situation also showed that there is not only one constantly repeated future. Now there are plenty of futures.