viewer

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The viewer is a construction in three possible sizes, of which two were built: the middle size on a cliff in Brazil in 2007, and the smallest size at Art Basel Statements the following year. Linked to a series of 200 drawings in red pencil, it inspired four Devonian Press publications, a series of micro-films (i. e. very short video sequences), and a video titled sci-fi film. The building is also associated with a hard drive, which functions as a separate work for storing and displaying various documents and images associated with this project. I travelled several times to live and work in the viewer that was built in Rio de Janeiro.
            The viewer took shape through a series of drawings of dinosaurs and prehistoric landscapes. It was within this context that the viewer defined its scale, its relationships, its sizes, its place in the landscape, its alterity, its allure … It tested its relationship with its environment, devoid of human beings. Its silhouette changed.
            This building would exist Before! Before man, before architecture, before adulthood, before language, before consciousness …? We speak of pre-language, but can a type of space correspond to this moment in time where words are not yet separated from one another, phrases are not composed, the world is not organized, and the grammar that exists is in a primary state? If consciousness distinguishes itself from unconsciousness, can there be a space built by means of their interweaving in such a way as to live with what is not said? What would be its forms of forgetfulness, omission, or inattention? Or of concealment? Can the earth be transparent? Where does my sight stop? The building, like the drawings, is made to look behind, that is to say Before! Even if, in that place, neither architecture nor man are possible. This place Before is also a type of space. Can we place ourselves inside of it?
            The viewer comes in three different sizes. It is a principle that has three terms, each with the same form but distinct properties, depending on whether one can enter into it or not, whether it is big or small, whether the climate is inside or outside. In the room of the Rio viewer, there were two switches one for light and one for sound:

        I turn on the light, I turn on the sound.