Sylvie Fanchon

QUEPUISJEFAIREPOURVOUS , 2022
Series of 10 sentences in whitewash on windows
440 x 221 cm

Daubed in whitewash, the four windows at one end of Bétonsalon’s glass façade are transformed into a pictorial surface. One after another, ten enigmatic phrases will be etched out within the whitewash in a standard font, devoid of any punctuation and rendered in tightly packed lettering. Over the course of the exhibition, Bétonsalon’s team will trace out a new phrase as each previous one is worn away. The short affirmations that make up this work by painter Sylvie Fanchon are uttered by Cortana, an intelligent voice assistant developed by Microsoft in the 2010s that is still in use despite already having been made obsolete.

Toeing the line between politeness and pushiness, invitation and imperative, Cortana attempts to make itself useful (IMHERETOHELPDOYOUNEEDANYTHING), to engage users in conversation (HELLOHOWABOUTACHAT) or to improve their productivity (ICANREMINDYOUOFIMPORTANTTHINGSANDMUCHMORE), whilst at the same time warning them not to get too familiar (PLEASEDONTPROVIDEANYPRIVATEINFORMATIO). Its limitations nonetheless soon become apparent (IMSORRYIDONTUNDERSTAND).

This simple yet already unintelligible language is characteristic of the straightforward and one-dimensional relationships offered by artificial intelligence assistants, which, beneath a helpful and servile veneer, gather information to increase technology companies’ profits and power. Fanchon’s pictorial production is based on pre-existing elements drawn from language and visual culture. Here she uses Cortana, a device at once intrusive, dystopian and comical, as a source of motifs for her paintings and in situ interventions. Facing out over the esplanade in front of Bétonsalon, eliciting questions and curiosity, Cortana’s invitations and their apparent authority are contrasted with the fragility and transparency of the surface on which they are inscribed.

Text by Mathilde Belouali-Dejean

Photograph : Antonin Horquin, Pierre Antoine