Belleville, Paris
Nicolas Ceccaldi
Unplugged
Édouard MontassutMTV Unplugged is a television series in which rock bands are invited to perform their songs in acoustic (“unplugged”) versions, offering audiences a more authentic and immediate experience of their favorite bands. In the visual arts, a charcoal drawing is comparable to an acoustic interpretation, as the medium’s immediacy is supposed to secure the authenticity of the artistic impulse. The title Unplugged also refers to the fact that the sculptures in this exhibition are themselves visibly “unplugged.” They consist of computer monitors whose screens have been replaced with the artist’s drawings, which he describes as “permanent screensavers.” These sculptures symbolize an omniscient cyber-surveillance entity that permeates computer infrastructures. A copy of Love and Psyche, Children (1890) by William Bouguereau depicts Eros (Love) and Psyche (the Soul) reunited for eternity after Psyche, having become immortal, was given butterfly wings. This pastel version differs from the original in its cropping below the protagonists’ arms, intended to evoke a resemblance to another similar but more popular artwork: Raphael’s two cherubs in the Sistine Madonna.