Emmanuelle Léonard

Par les yeux du surveillant

As a new initiative, DHC/ART invites an artist to conceive a hands-on workshop for the education program to be presented within the framework of its current exhibition: "Par les yeux du surveillant" / Through the Eyes of the Monitor is the first of these projects created by artist Emmanuelle Léonard. Aimed at an exploration of the themes and approaches put forth in the exhibition Chronicles of a Disappearance, participants will be presented with a sequence of footage that has been captured by the foundation’s surveillance cameras. In small discussion groups, participants will select images from this footage based on given criteria, which will then be printed. The participants will each individually describe the essence of one of these images in a brief sentence. These accumulated images and texts will provide the content for a collaborative piece that will be created by Emmanuelle Léonard and presented at our closing event.
- DHC/ART Press -

Extras recruited by classified ads are invited to play the role of some anonymous visitors in the DHC exhibition rooms. Unknowingly filmed by the surveillance cameras of the space, they are observed on extracts from videotapes by the participants of the workshop. The participants will have to identify the ones who are suspected of having committed minor crimes. On what criteria should our judgment be based when we have for the only evidence a picture in bad quality? What is a suspicious behaviour in a gallery? Finally it is the observer that observes himself.