Stéphan Barron
Stéphan Barron is a contemporary artist. He developed through his artworks since the 1980s the ideas of Planetary Art[1] and Technoromanticism.[2] Planetary Art[3] is an art form which takes the Earth in its planetary dimension as its basis for artistic creation. Technoromanticism is the theory of links between art and new technologies, within the context of the threats posed to Nature by technoscience and economic development. Technoromanticism also seeks to analyse the return of the human body within technological arts, formulating the hypothesis that a technological society needs a corporeal rebalancing of perceptions.
"Stéphan Barron occupies, in Europe, a prominent place in the search for a spatio-temporal definition of the video image."[4]
Selected works and projects
All these artworks are documented in Stéphan Barron's HDR on the Technoromanticism website.[5]
Planetary artwork
Thaon/New York
Satellite audio transmission and slow-scan TV between the medieval church of Thaon in Normandy, France, and The Cloisters in New York City - June 1987.[6] Only satellite transmission by a European artist, this artwork anticipates global or planetary art which developed later with the internet.
Orient Express
Stéphan Barron rode the Orient Express from Paris to Budapest and every hour took a Polaroid of what he saw. In Budapest the 25 Polaroids of that one-way trip were scanned on computer and sent to Paris by modem. The same process was used from Budapest to Paris, and the 25 digitised Polaroids of the return trip were sent from Paris to Budapest - Institut Français, Budapest October 1987 - New version, exhibition at OSTRALE / DRESDEN - sept. 2010.[7]
Berlin / Peking
Seven television sets showing images from the Berlin Wall and Berliners facing seven television sets showing images from China and the Great Wall.[8]
Alice
Transtlantic installation for the transinteractifs - Paris / Toronto - November 1988
Lines (Traits)
Stephan Barron and Sylvia Hansmann followed the Greenwich Meridian by car from the English Channel to the Mediterranean Sea and from Villers-sur-Mer to Castillon de la Plana. With their car fax they regularly sent images and texts about their trip to other faxes located in eight different European locations (among them was Ars Electronica) - 1989.[9]
Autoportrait
In the exhibition space, a robot arrow indicated where Stephan Barron could be found. Stephan Barron built this telephone-operated robot in collaboration with the engineer Jerome Gilbert, a specialist in home automation - 1991.[10]
Les plantes de mon jardin
Every day, Stephan Barron sent images of the plants in his tiny garden from Hérouville in France by fax to Prague - Spala Galery, Prague - 1991.[11]
À perte d’entendre
Linked by walkie-talkie to the Brandenburg Gate, Stephan Barron walked away from it eight successive times in eight different directions. Each time he lost audio contact, he there and then took a Polaroid picture. The project was carried out at the Brandenburg Gate, symbol of the immaterial border between east and west - Sakchewsky Galery, Berlin - 1991.[12]
Le bleu du ciel
Two computers, one located in Tourcoing and the other in Toulon, were connected by telephone. They calculated in real time the average of the colours in the northern and southern skies. The same planetary interactive installation was shown between Paris and Munich in 1995 (Unesco Award) - Tourcoing School of Art - 1994.[13]
Le jour et la nuit (Night and day)
Two computers, one in Brazil, one in Australia, averaged the images of the skies of the two countries - Arte tecnologia, São Paulo - 1995.[14]
Ozon
Measurements taken of ozone produced by motor car pollution in the city of Lille, and measurements taken of ultraviolet radiation coming through the ozone layer were transformed into sounds via the Internet that were projected onto the streets of Roubaix and in the garden of the Old Treasury Building in Adelaide - Adelaide International Festival - 1996.[15]
Eurotunnel
Stéphan Barron and Sylvia Hansmann travel by boat across the English Channel directly above the path of the Channel Tunnel; at regular intervals they throw buoys equipped with beacons linked to satellites. This marking out of the Channel's path is eventually dispersed by the wind and ocean currents - Project.[16]
Com-post
Online artwork - Web surfers send in their texts by e-mail. Poetry, texts expressing love and hate or utopian views, all forms are accepted. All are then composed! http://www.com_post.org - 2000 [17]
Fusil
Online artwork on guns - 2003 - http://www.fusil.biz
corpo@corpo
One of the first artworks using cell phone: MMS, SMS, email and digital photograph - Biennale de Venezia 2005.[18]
wyfy®
Video and performance - Biennale de Lyon 2007, FRUC.[19]
Le Nouveau Voyage
110 years after his ancestor's epic journey, Stéphan Barron takes the same route as seen by satellite. This work is presented as a performance-projection but can also be experienced more personally with mobile phone and the internet. Le FRUC - April 2009.[20]
o-o-o
Live performance and sound installation transforms in real time using singing voices measures of ozone from the GOME satellite spinning around earth and measures of ozone produced by city pollution in the exhibition center. Le FRUC - 2008.[21]
Contact
Two seemingly unconnected copper plates in two different locations. When someone places a hand on the first plate, the second will begin to warm up. FRUC & ECAP congress 2008.[22]
Monochromes
Monochromes draw the viewers into a pure perception of colour without the presence of a physical art work. One experiences the depth of pure colour - the colour within. 2012.[23]
Thermochromes
The thermochromes are hand imprints created with paint that disappears at human body temperature. They follow Stéphan Barron's installation contact.[24]
Photography
Prières
Installation of 14 digital photograph sized 120x160 in FRUC Artcenter, Montpellier - July 2003
Video Art
Baltic
Videotape (18 min) + Sound of the stones and clash of primitive materials: earth, straw, grass and sky. Key words: Carnac, Zen garden, land-art, ready-made. Music: Deficit Des Années Anterieures - 1985
New York
Videotape (4 min 30 sec) + New York, machine, mechanical constraints with muffled sounds. New York, energy, foaming and perpetual movement. New York, black and white mixing - Music: Vivenza -1985 -1986
Orient express
Video performance-installation - 1987, Paris/Budapest. Shown in Stockholm in 1988
Wall
Video environment made of 4 walls of 4 times 4 TV monitors. On the videos: close-up views of city walls. Meditation, concentration, expansion - 1987. Shown in Vidéoformes 04/87 Clermont-Ferrand, Opéra de Lille 09/87, Sigma de Bordeaux 11/87, Vidéo Art Plastique d’Hérouville 11/87, CAC de St Quentin en Yvelynes 01/88
C'est d'autres tiroirs
Installation at Centre Culturel de Cherbourg - 1988
Dans la chaleur des concept
Stephan Barron puts a TV set showing fire in the middle of the Icking forest near Munich. Fire symbolizes the domination of man over nature (a reference to Prometheus) and the possible danger of technology for man's survival - 1988.
Signs of the times
Seven pieces of blue novelatto marble measuring 0.7 x 1 m engraved with the principal symbols of video - 1993
In the space of a day
Video process and installation about the space we go through in a day. - 1994
Thaon /New York
Video on the 1987 satellite transmission - 1990
Dans la chaleur des concepts
Video on the 1988 installation - 1990
Traits
Video on the artwork from 1989 - Voice from Pierre Restany - 1990
Hommage au «Chaos»
Video - 1993
Les plantes de mon jardin
Video on the project - 1994
Transmission
This video is made with the images of the slow-scan transmission Thaon / New York edited on the original sound transmission by the radio WNYC New York. The film is a succession of slow meditative images. These almost abstract images are like many black and white paintings slowly revealed. This film is an hypnotic artwork. - 2008
A perte d'entendre
Linked by walkie-talkie to the Brandenburg Gate, Stéphan Barron walked away from it 8 successive times in 8 different directions. Each time he lost audio contact, he there and then took a Polaroid picture. The video is made with the 8 images and the sound from 91 - 2008
Le Nouveau Voyage
Video on the planetary artwork «Le Nouveau Voyage» - 2009
Dvdremix
Limited Edition of historical and new remixed video artwork by Stéphan Barron starting 2010 [26]
References
- Toucher l'espace, poétique de l'art planétaire, Éditions L'Harmattan, 2006
- Technoromantisme, Éditions L'Harmattan, 2002
- "Planetary Art takes the Earth as its raw material for emotional and introspective expression, using telecommunication technologies to highlight distance and geographical space. This art form explores the emotions and poetry of distance, and reflects on globalisation, and its human and ecological consequences; Stéphan Barron's adventure awakens and alerts us to a broader conscience of our planet." Edgar Morin
- Pierre Restany in The world of art in 1995, Unesco
- L'Art Planétaire, genèse d'un Technoromantisme dans l'Art contemporain au tournant du millénaire. Recherche, expérimentation, création.
- Satellite audiotransmission and slow-scan TV between the medieval church of Thaon in Normandy, France, and the Cloisters in New York City
- Stéphan Barron – Orient Express in Dresden.
- Berlin Peking-Project 1988
- Stéphan Barron's Lines.
- Ozon at Adelaide Festival
- Eurotunnel Project Description
- Com-post Description
- corpo@corpo at Venice Biennale
- Wyfy artwork website
- Le Nouveau Voyage Website
- http://o-o-o.info
- Description
- Monochromes by Stéphan Barron
- Thermochromes by Stéphan Barron
- Stéphan Barron's 3Dedalus
- dvdremix website
