UTOPIA

Utopia is a multimedia installation that immerses the viewer in a continuous flow of news stories from international newspapers, allowing them to pay attention to the dynamics and contradictions of mass media storytelling.

Excerpts from news stories that have been chosen according to their geopolitical aspects and their media resonance and are edited to create a narrative plot. These short collages of stories, because of their impact and their appearance in a compressed time frame, are able to produce a melodramatic whole. The spectator observes this daily drama installed comfortably in a room furnished with beach chairs. The result is a visual, cacophonous show. Even if the facts are real, the installation creates the conditions for an uncritical, almost superficial and enthusiastic voyeurism.

The spectator is overwhelmed by the steady stream of images and sounds; but the installation also offers a small alternative refuge: in-between the cascades of images and informations there is a bright tropical island. A headset plays a Caribbean jingle that allows the visitor to free himself or themself from the external context by choosing the luminous island. This set-up creates a private and secure space in opposition to the “cascade of realities”. This utopia, even if it gives the viewer a feeling of powerlessness and passivity, comes to their aid and lets them take a step away and separates them from the frenzy of the world.