For its second edition, the flagship exhibition of the Biennale de l'Image Tangible invites twelve French and international artists to Atelier Basfroi, from November 13 to 22, 2020, around the themes of town planning, the control society and monitoring tools.

Digital prints (Richard Mosse, Clemens Gritl, Maxime Matthys) or silver prints (Thierry Urbain), recomposed images (Beate Gütschow, Claudia Larcher) and videos (Hito Steyerl), sculptures (Xavier Bauer, Achim Mohné) or multimedia installations (Grégory Chatonsky, Emmanuel Van Der Auwera, Antje Feger & Benjamin Stumpf), the works of artists invited by the Tangible Image Biennale place us at the heart of the network of cyber-connected cities, architectural utopias, and the monitoring tools that scrutinize them with their mechanical eye.

They are more particularly interested in the functioning and the scope of these registration systems which now dominate and govern our societies, referred to as “control societies”. They thus open up a reflection on the emergence, place and socio-political implications of these new technologies in the public space, for 50% urban humanity - and which will be 70% by 2050. Each proposal considers therefore critically the tangible effects and the future of these digital technologies, in order to understand their impact on the organization of our environment ... And to see how our perception of the world, of ourselves, as well as our behavior, is find it affected.

So how do the new tools for capturing reality, which include photography and its digital ersatz, end up shaping urban space? How do they contribute to producing a world, rather than just recording it? And by what means do they manage to format our bodies, our habits and our minds, through the uses we make of them on a daily basis?

François Salmeron

Xavier BAUER / Grégory CHATONSKY / Antje FEGER & Benjamin STUMPF / Clemens GRITL / Beate GÜTSCHOW / Claudia LARCHER / Maxime MATTHYS / Achim MOHNÉ / Richard MOSSE / Hito STEYERL / Thierry URBAIN / Emmanuel VAN DER AUWERA