Mechanical Dreamings, 16 May 2007

A new artist on the Toulouse scene, Alex Suné weaves bonds between the world of objects and that of art. As he plays on the double identity of the object, your imagination comes in communion with reality. To work on the shift between realities leads him to make real inexistent things that are however admitted by everybody as being a reality. His installations make us think of Gaston Bachelard’s poetics and invites us to go and search for the images hidden behind the ones he shows us. Using recovered objects with a history, he reappropriates materials and turns the object around to construct a new thinking. His dreamlike experiences lead us to contemplation and his installations are set in a perpetual motion of return to life where all abstraction and all metaphor become real. The relevance in the way he looks on the outside world offers us the first steps to a powerful analysis of our society.

Isabelle Cargol : Is the «syndrome du poisson rouge» (Red Fish Syndrome) the starting point of your artistic thinking ?
Alexandre Suné : It’s a founding text. At first the expression of the concerns in my work, it has become an independent object. I wanted a creation punctuated by words and shifted situations.

I.C : Then came «Zen for a fish» and «Mer intérieure» (Interior Sea), water is at the heart of these creation, isn’t it ?
A.S : It starts with the fish, the oblivion. The red fish has an illness, it has amnesia in average every seven seconds. For me, the idea of starting anew is essential. In the play called «Zen for a fish», The aquarium starts with the fish and I wanted to pay tribute to Nam June Paik. The rake ploughs furrows in the sand when it goes round in the aquarium, as does the fish. In this play, you are allowed to reconstruction only if you have destroyed. But what is to destroy? What are the fundamental things that we have to destroy?

I.C : This is the main line in your work?
A.S : What is really founding is the objects, their materiality, the motion, the space and the sound. The way objects take possession of space, the paradoxical, disconcerting and poetic situations... It’s in this way that I worked on the theme of a tribute to all creators and to all intellectuals. «Feuille volante» (Flying leaf), «Jusqu’au dernier souffle» (to the last breath) and «Hommage à Otto Lilienthal» (A tribute to Otto Lilienthal) are tributes to this man, acknowledged as the first glider pilot, and who died in a fall after more than 200 confirmed glides. I wanted to pay tribute too to Nam June Paik because he challenged the artistic trends of his time and was one of the pioneers of Video Art. After the «Chaise électrique» (Electric chair), it is to the pioneer of electricity I wanted to pay tribute to. If Benjamin Franklin took part in the United States Constitution, one mustn’t forget that he also is the spiritual Father of the electric chair. I like to underline paradoxes.

I.C : Your work is mainly made of video installations and electro-mechanical micro-installations ?
A.S : I occupy space with sound and movement, I do no look for a voluminous staging. I want to create harmony by assembling various objects and sometimes very different materials. I like the shift between what is allowed and what is forbidden. «La Machine à sons» (The Sound Machine), le «son du blé» (The Sound of Wheat) are the starting point of all the other creations. The sound of wheat is a smooth and pleasant sound which aims at obtaining silence in a station. «Mer intérieure» (Interior Sea) and «Pierres qui...» (Stones that…) are basically works on absurd in reality.

Events

2006 #1nightshot/visions nocturnes, Malves en Minervois Chamber music/Musique de chambre, Olin Gallery, Salem Virginia USA

2003 Mer intérieure, Espace des arts, Colomiers

Links

http://perso.orange.fr/alex.sune/Alexandre-Sune.swf
www.roanoke.edu/finearts/galleries/main.html