Exhibition - " The Whole is Always Smaller than its Parts" - Atelier Claude Closky
The Whole is Always Smaller than its Parts
We’re overtaken by events.
Curated by Olivier Bémer and Elsa Michaud
Opening on Wednesday May, 17, 2017 from 6 to 9 pm.
Exhibition from Wednesday, May 17 to Saturday, May 20, 2017.
For the second time, Claude Closky’s students will display their works at Bétonsalon – Center for Art and Research for a short exhibition within the exhibition.
Emmanuelle Lainé allowed the artists to take over the exhibition space by responding to her installation Incremental Self: Transparent Bodies.
With: Chadine Amghar, Olivier Bémer, Clément Bleu—Pays, Kim Bradford, Inès Dobelle, Margot Douay, Jonás Fadrique, Elias Gama Paez, Manon Gignoux, Nastassia Kotava, Cham Lavant, Elsa Michaud, Martin Poulain, Sacha Rey, Matthew Young Chan Junn, Yann Yue Yuan
“For instance, how ants, without any super-organism and in the absence of central planning such as the ‘spirit of the anthill’, are none the less able to design such exquisitely functional nests.
[…] No ant ‘sees the whole nest.
[…] And yet, people seem to marvel, in the end, that there are structures and orders
[…] When we say, for instance, that interacting ants unwittingly produce a perfectly designed ant nest ‘without’ being themselves aware of the ‘overall plan’, we might have unwittingly confused two different observing points of view: that of the ant and that of the ethologist. This is what causes the disconnection in saying that ants, through their blind interactions, ‘generate’ the emerging structure of the nest. Strictly speaking, they generate nothing of the sort.
[…] What we call the ‘emerging structure of the nest’ is a question that interests the human observer but not the ants themselves.
[…] ‘Atomistic-interactions-between-blind-antsnone-the-less–able-to-solve-the-problem-of-overall-social-order’ is not what ants are after.”
Bruno Latour, 2012, “The whole is always smaller than its parts’– a digital test of Gabriel Tardes’ monads”. The British Journal of Sociology, 2012, Volume 63, Issue 4
"Un hyperobjet se distingue par sa grande diffusion dans le temps et dans l’espace, qui est telle qu’on ne peut plus en identifier les contours et les limites. C’est le cas pour les phénomènes écologiques : lorsque je cherche à identifier la biosphère, je perçois la personne en face de moi, la table à laquelle nous sommes assis, mais je ne vois pas l’objet « biosphère » en soi. Pourquoi ? Parce que j’en fais partie, parce que je suis moi-même la biosphère.
En dépit de leur unité, les parties qui composent les hyperobjets ne sont pas moins réelles que la totalité. Pendant des années, on a considéré que le tout était supérieur à ses parties. Or je pense que ce n’est pas le cas, et que cette conception est simplement un « retweet » du monothéisme, où l’homme est placé en relation d’infériorité par rapport à une entité plus grande et plus puissante que lui. Pour coexister de manière non-violente avec nos semblables et les autres créatures naturelles, il nous faut d’abord accepter l’idée que le tout puisse être inférieur à ses parties."
Timothy Morton, "Les “hyperobjets”, le superconcept qui révolutionne la pensée écologique", Les inrocks, 21.11.2015
"If you want to make the world a better place, you have to start with where power has gone. It’s very difficult to see. We live in a world where we see ourselves as independent individuals. If you’re an independent individual, you don’t really think in terms of power. You think only in terms of your own influence on the world.
What you don’t see is what people in the past were more able to see. When you are in groups, you can be very powerful. You can change things. You have confidence when things go wrong that you don’t when you’re on your own. That’s why the whole concept of power has dwindled. We’re encouraged just to talk about ourselves and our feelings towards others. We’re not encouraged to see ourselves as part of anything.
But the computers know the truth. They see us as a group. We’re actually quite similar to each other. We have the same desires, ambitions, and fears. Computers spot this through correlations and patterns.
Computers can see us as large groups, but they’re glum and only aggregate us to sell us stuff. In reality, the computers give great insight into the power of common identity between groups. No one’s using that. What’s sitting with the computers is a way of seeing new groups, new common identities between people."
"Adam Curtis on the dangers of self-expression", interview in the Creative Independent, March 14, 2017
- Installation of the exhibition "The Whole is Always Smaller than its Parts", May 2017, Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research.
- Installation of the exhibition "The Whole is Always Smaller than its Parts", May 2017, Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research.
- View of the exhibition "The Whole is Always Smaller than its Parts", May 2017, Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research.
Share