From noon on Saturday October 24th to noon on Sunday October 25th, Silenctio, Institut Du Monde, and Reference Festival welcome Richie Hawtin and John Gerrard for an event in which the exhibition carries on through the night. Staged during Art Basel Paris, the 24-hour programme brings together a conversation, the installation infin.1.iridescent.stream, and a MINUS+ night pairing DJ sets with a performance of SPIRITS.
The event places contemporary art, electronic music and club culture in conversation. It extends a shared inquiry into time and perception: in Gerrard’s work, images transform with the rhythm of solar cycles; in Hawtin’s, repetition and minute variation gradually reshape the act of listening. Their works invite audiences to move from contemplation into a collective experience of sound and image. The event forms part of the Reference Festival programme.
A defining figure in electronic music, Richie Hawtin grew up in Windsor, Canada, across the river from Detroit, whose music scene shaped his earliest experiments. As co-founder of Plus 8 and founder of M_nus, he helped define the language of minimal techno. As Plastikman, from Sheet One (1993) to Consumed (1998), he developed a sound built on tension, space and subtle transformation. His relationship with contemporary art is perhaps best captured by his 2013 performance at the Guggenheim in New York, at the invitation of Raf Simons, which became EX, released the following year.
Irish artist John Gerrard is a pioneer of simulation in contemporary art. His worlds, computed in real time, make visible the energy and industrial infrastructures that structure our lives. In Western Flag (2017), a flag of black smoke endlessly renews itself over the site of a former oil field. Solar Reserve (2014) recreates a solar power plant and the movement of the sun and stars. His work is held in collections including Tate, MoMA and the Fondation Louis Vuitton.
infin.1.iridescent.stream – Saturday 24 October, 12pm to midnight
A D’Albertis python with iridescent scales appears in a digital world. Every hour, its body traces a figure of eight and its mouth meets its tail, forming the ouroboros, an ancient symbol of destruction and rebirth. Gerrard’s simulation unfolds across a full solar year, its palette shifting from nocturnal blues to the reds and oranges of daylight.
The work is accompanied by an original composition by Plastikman (Richie Hawtin), continuously recomposed through Bronze.ai, so that image and music evolve together in an ever-changing form. The programme opens with a one-hour conversation between Hawtin and Gerrard, moderated by Marc Spiegler, exploring the ideas and processes behind their collaboration.
SPIRITS
A sandal washed up on a beach carries a story we know almost nothing about. For SPIRITS, Gerrard began with 96 plastic shoes and sandals gathered from the shores of the Pacific, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean and Atlantic. Photographed and digitally reconstructed, they become shifting sculptural forms, rippling with oil-slick reflections and currents.
Originally commissioned by the Art + Technology Lab at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the work unfolds over a year, marked by the solstices and equinoxes. Designed to be handled in a web browser, it draws the viewer in through touch. Its sheen is seductive, while its material speaks to the persistence of plastic and petroleum’s hold over the most ordinary objects. At FVTVR, SPIRITS takes the form of an installation and a live performance with Anastasia Giovani, opening the experience up to a collective setting.
MINUS+: through the night until noon
At midnight, the music takes over. Curated by Richie Hawtin, the MINUS+ night brings together Richie Hawtin, Matador, Courtesy, Kristin Velvet and Reece Pritchard. SPIRITS accompanies this second chapter, as the works continue alongside the DJ sets until noon.
Tickets are available here