Tony Oursler : State_NonState (hypnose)

As part of the Hypnose exhibition at the Musée d’arts de Nantes, Tony Oursler has devised a new and original installation specifically for the Chapelle de l’Oratoire.

Through some fifteen video sketches and mini-plays, filmed in a manner reminiscent of both early cinema and of the New York underground scene of the 1980s, the artist recreates the events that have marked the history of hypnosis, from Franz Anton Mesmer’s “animal magnetism” to the most up-to-date hypnotic forms of our digital culture, from smartphones to facial recognition technologies.

Richly illustrated with stills and montages of the video projections, this catalog also includes all the poems and texts used in the installation, thus revealing both the profusion of ideas it communicates and its hybrid nature. It opens with an essay written for the occasion by media historian Jeffrey Sconce and concludes with Tony Oursler’s sensory account of a journey to the places of his childhood, which he experienced while under hypnosis. (bron: website uitgever)