Philippe Parreno at the Museo Jumex
For his first solo exhibition in Mexico City, the French artist is presenting an ever-changing composition of films, sound and light on two floors
Philippe Parreno has created a living entity of a spatial journey for the Museo Jumex. For his first solo landing in Mexico City, the French artist is presenting La levadura y el anfitrión (The Yeasts and The Host), where “the exhibition is conceived as a scripted space, like an automaton producing different temporalities, a rhythm, a journey, a duration.”
This experimental microcosm is directed by a host that moves throughout the gallery spaces. On the second floor is the namesake yeast colony, bred in a bioreactor, adapting to the changes and events in light, video and sound triggered by the human conductor —in this case, a roster of six men and women. The yeast then communicates these changes to the connected systems in the control room, which in turn scripts events in generative sequences in a marquee located in the first-floor gallery —the marquee itself was commissioned for La Colección Jumex.
While Parreno conceived and created this organism, he has surrendered control to unpredictable human and digital elements, in the shape of the host and a set of algorithms.
With these experiences, the artist questions the growingly overlapping space between the human brain and emerging forms of intelligence, matter and activity.
La levadura y el anfitrión is on display until February 11
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