From X to X

Drawing on the history of phylloxera — an aphid brought back in the trunks of European explorers that devastated French vineyards — From X is a laboratory for observing microscopic scenes. Through a microscope invented for the occasion, the visitor dives into a singular organic environment; but the more visitors play, the more intense the activity becomes in the other pavilion.

To X stages an apocalyptic landscape in which a sand virus slowly covers analogue images: old cathode-ray televisions lined up on the floor, along a rail where machines spread a rain of fine matter. The audiovisual archives of the city of Niort, playing in a loop, are gradually covered and degraded by the visitors’ activity.

Shown at the Regards noirs crime-fiction festival 2019 in Niort. Production: creation grant from the City of Niort, association QZN.