Dominic Gagnon: "RIP in Pieces America", 2009

Publié le 30 janvier 2012 à 17:12 De Alain

RIP in Pieces America, Dominic Gagnon, Kanada 2009, 21 min Version.

Ein found-footage Video aus zensierten YouTube Clips.

"Als unangemessen melden". Der unscheinbare Button, der unter jedem YouTube Video mit einer Fahne symbolisiert wird, markiert die Grenzen der Freiheit im Internet. Einmal von anonymen Nutzern geflaggt, ist das Video, nach Prüfung durch das ebenfalls anonyme YouTube-Team, schnell und für immer verschwunden. In diesen Prozess schaltet sich Dominic Gagnon ein. Er 'rettet' die geflaggten Videos vor ihrer Löschung und collagiert sie zu einer dunklen Mythologie des amerikanischen Survivalismus. Hier kommen Menschen zu Wort, die dem Staat aufs Tiefste misstrauen, die ihre Mitbürger warnen und sich bewaffnen. So entsteht ein unklares Bild. Während sich die Protagonisten vor dem allmächtigen amerikanischen Staat fürchten, weiß der Betrachter nicht so recht, was in dieser hier am bedrohlichsten ist: Die Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika, die Verschwörungstheorien ihrer bis an die Zähne bewaffneten Kritiker oder die anonyme Zensurmacht der netzbeherrschenden Konzerne. Nicht nur das Originalmaterial der militanten Amerikakritiker verschwand spurlos von YouTube, auch Dominic Gagnon konnte RIP in Pieces America nicht hochladen, ohne dass es umgehend geflaggt und entfernt wurde. Jetzt hat die Arbeit auf ARTE creative ihr vituelles Exil gefunden. Während RIP in Pieces America (transmediale.10) überwiegend Männer zu Wort kommen ließ, widmet sich Gagnons neueste Arbeit Pieces and Love All to Hell fast ausschließlich weiblichen Protagonistinnen. Letztere zeigen wir auf der aktuellen transmediale 2012 als Installation.

RIP in Pieces America, Dominic Gagnon, Canada 2009, 21 min version.

A found-footage video made out of censored YouTube clips.

"Flag as inapproriate". This unconspicuous button with a flag icon appears underneath every single YouTube video we watch marking the limits of our freedom in the Internet. Once flagged by anonymous users, after being checked by the also anonymous YouTube team, a video quickly disappears forever. In exactly this process, Dominic Gagnon intervenes. He 'saves' the flagged videos before they are deleted and adds them to a dark and mythological collage of American survivalism. People have their say, who deeply mistrust the government, who warn their fellow citizens, and who arm themselves visibly. An unclear image emerges. While the protagonists are scared of the almighty American government, the viewer is irritated what to find the most threatening in this video: the United States of America, the critics armed to the teeth with conspiracy theories, or the anonymous censorship power of the companies which control the web. Not only did the original material vanish without trace from YouTube, but Dominic Gagnon couldn't upload RIP in Pieces America without it being flagged and removed either. Fortunately, the work has now found virtual exile on ARTE creative. The protagonists of RIP in Pieces America, presented at transmediale.10, are mostly male, wheras in Gagnon's recent work Pieces and Love All to Hell they are mainly female. Pieces... is presented as an installation at transmediale 2012.

Dominic Gagnon (born in Rimouski, 1974) is an inventor, director, installer and active performer. He considers cinema as a technique for measuring the immeasurable or as a discipline of chaos. Since 1996, he has made public presentations of moving images, has invented machines and concepts, performs sound works, built facilities and creates performances in various galleries, festivals and biennials around the world. To carry out his projects, Gagnon has conducted research about the decline of economies, terror, violence and identity crisis among boys, the international adoption systems, information disorder and homelessness, Sado-Masochism and fetishism in popular culture and the family in the era of mega-entertainment. He lives in Québec.

transmediale festival for art and digital culture

transmediale is a festival for art and digital culture, founded in 1988 under the name of VideoFilmFest. transmediale 2012 will take place from 31 January to 5 February at Haus der Kulturen der Welt. With the new Artistic Director Kristoffer Gansing, everything will revolve around the theme in/compatible. Incompatibility refers to the condition that arises when things do not work together. The festival investigates the productive and destructive sides of incompatibility as a fundamental condition for cultural production in times of crisis. In the spirit of ruptures, gaps and creative hacks, the festival for digital art and culture will celebrate its 25th anniversary with an international programme featuring discussion panels, artworks, video screenings, workshops, performances and art interventions. Starting from January 2012 we will present a special selection of videos from the videoprogramme Satellite Stories, curated by Marcel Schwierin. The videoprogramme of transmediale 2012 raises the question of the compatibility between human beings and the products they create. Whether we look to politics, the financial markets, architecture, traffic, fashion or in particular to the mass media: we create an environment that is intended to satisfy our needs, but one that also consistently makes demands upon us that we cannot achieve. The products seem to develop a life of their own, and are no longer adapted to suit human needs; instead, we are forced to adapt to them in order to avoid becoming incompatible ourselves. Le festival des arts et cultures numériques transmediale se tiendra du 31 janvier au 5 février 2012 à Berlin. Cette 25ème édition s'articule autour du thème de l'incompatibilité. Un état qui survient lorsque différents éléments ne fonctionnent pas entre eux. Hormis une exposition et une série de conférences, le festival organise des projections - rassemblées sous le titre Satellite Stories, les films sélectionnés abordent eux aussi la notion de compatibilité : compatibilité entre les humains et les objets qu'ils créent. Marcel Schwierin, le commissaire de cette série de films commente pour ARTE creative une oeuvre par semaine.