Fred Forest
copyright : 253.454/00 ADAGP
maket
on line : www.fredforest.org/ny
WE
SHALL REMEMBER
FRED
FOREST PROJECT
Realization
in the sky of New York, just a step from what was formerly the World Trade
Center, of a sculpture of light, in the form of a huge interactive neon sign:
Values/Dialogue/Diversty
of cultural
A
symbolic signal that the Internet users of the whole planet switch on, letter
by letter, so that delivers, beyond the time, a message of memory, brotherhood
and serene determination.
copyright
: 253.454/00 ADAGP
PROJECT:
"WE SHALL REMEMBER" OF FRED FOREST
CONCEPT
This project is
proposed by the artist Fred Forest, of international fame, considered as one of
the pioneers of the art on Internet.
The concept of
this project has the advantage to address all the public, with a contributive,
playful, artistic and visual dimension, and especially a very high symbolic
potential for this event. It presents the double advantage of a concrete,
visual presence, in a physical, geographic, urban space: the city of New York,
and at the same time a global presence with its Internet’s site and its
webcams. It is about an artistic installation in the form of a light signal
consisted of the words WE SHALL REMEMBER, at the top of a tower of New York or
of a structure gone up for the occasion, in a temporary way, in a public space.
The system is equipped with webcams and works in interaction on Internet under
control of Internet users of the whole world. These last ones switch on,
alternately, every letter, by connecting through a site dedicated to the
project. The lighting of every letter is dependant of the scheduled number of calls.
This site created by the artist, already constituting, in itself, a work of art
of network, as well as a luminous sculpture which shines in the sky of New
York.
PARTNERSHIP
- It is up to the
city of New York to finance the project or to find the necessary sponsors. The
city of New York can choose the executive producer, asked to manage financially
the project and to go up it physically and technically, under the artistic
coordination of Fred Forest, the artist.
STAKES
- For the city of
New York and the USA, this project constitutes an exceptional opportunity to
answer the tragic events of September 11th, 2001, by a cultural event of the
very first plan, constituting a positive message sent to the whole world. A
message showing clearly a will of peace, love and brotherhood, between the
individuals and the peoples of the whole world. The tower (the towers) which
will be of use at its summit of support of the luminous sculpture of the
artist, will constitute a very strong symbol which, in a sense, will ward off
the mortiferous aspect bound henceforth to this type of building, to invert
positively the perception.
PHILOSOPHY
- With its
invitation to make, at distance, the Internet users act in an action of playful
participation, of interactive type, the project puts in evidence the fact that
the technologies of communication and of information are radically changing our
RELATIONSHIP TO THE WORLD, but that they may also change, also, our
RELATIONSHIP WITH THE OTHER ONE and also the LINKS which unite the men of the
whole world. The highly SYMBOLIC dimension of the project contributes, in the
period of crisis which crosses our civilization, to deliver a positive message.
A message which constitutes a signal of LOVE, of HOPE, and an asserted will of
PEACE between the peoples.
FUNCTIONING
- It is the number
of the calls which conditions the successive lighting of letters, in the order,
according to the chosen programming for each of the letters of the luminous
message.
- A campaign of
specific communication accompanies the launch of the site to stimulate the
participation of the Internet users.
- The challenge
thrown to the Internet users consists in the fact that the work never goes out.
By webcams they have on their screen a permanent visual control of it.
- Agreements of
partnership and broadcasting are realized with TV, to include the participation
of the television viewers, who are also, very often, at the same time, Internet
users. (Internet + TV)
CONCLUSION
- The first merit
of this project: it is at first its very high simplicity ! A concept within the
reach of all the public, with this proposition made by an artist of a
"sculpture" of light. A sculpture "sculptured" by the very
Internet users from the whole world… A luminous "sculpture", which is
going to shine symbolically in the sky of New York but also on the five
continents… on the screens of millions and millions computers.
WHO
IS FRED FOREST ?
EXTRACT
OF THE "GRAND LAROUSSSE UNIVERSEL":
(page 242, supplement)
"Forest (
Fred), French artist (born in Mascara, today Mouaskar, Algeria, on 1933). Since
his first video exhibition in Tours in 1969, he attempted to put in relation,
in his creation, the social reality, the phenomena of communication and an
imaginary dimension. Forest appears among the pioneers of the sociological art
as initiator of a practice investigating the meaning possibilities of the
video, but also the means such as radio, television, print media, telephone,
cable, on-line data processing, robotics, luminous and internet electronic
newspapers. Since 1994 he is a holder of the Pulpit of the Sciences of the
Information and the Communication of the University of Nice. "http://www.fredforest.org"
FRED FOREST
1969 -
Interactive video installation. Gallery Sainte Croix. Tours, France.
1972 -
Space-media with the newspaper "Le Monde".
- "60
secondes d’interruption" (60 seconds of interruption) on the 2d French TV
Channel.
- Series of
experiments of press (Print media, radio, television) in France, and abroad.
1973 -
Price of the communication, Biennal of Sao-Paulo, Brazil.
1976 -
Biennal of Venice, Italy.
1977 -
"Documenta VI", Kassel, Germany.
1982 -
Personal exhibition, "Bourse de l’imaginaire" (stock exchange of the
Imagination), Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France.
1984 -
"L’imaginaire technologique" (The technological imagination), Museum
del Sannio Benevento, Italy.
-
"Artcom", Museums of Jerusalem and Haifa, Israel.
-
"Electra", Museum of Modern Art, Paris, France.
1985 -
Doctorate Es-Lettres and Human Sciences, Sorbonne, Paris, France.
(Supported with electronic systems, room Louis Liard).
1986 -
"XI world Congress of sociology ", New Delhi, India.
1987 -
"Documenta VIII", Kassel, Germany.
1988 -
Personal exhibition, Gallery Friedrich, Cologne, Germany.
- video
installation, Ludwig museum, Cologne, Germany.
1989 -
Julia Margaret Cameron", mediactic Action, Musée des Beaux Arts, Toulon,
France.
- personal
exhibition, Gallery Jacqueline Felmann, Paris, France.
- "Rituels
télématiques" (telematic Rites), Arctic Circle, USSR
- Performance,
Red Place, Moscow, USSR
1990 - personal
exhibition, Gallery Jacqueline Rivolta, Lausanne, Switzerland.
- Price Laser
d’Or, Video Festival of Locarno, Switzerland.
1991 -
"Les Artistes et la lumière" (The Artists and the light), Centre of
Art and of Technology, Reims,
- "La Bible
électronique" (The Electronic Bible), Centre of Contemporary Art, La Base,
Levallois.
- action Fred
Forest: President of the Bulgarian TV.
- exhibition
"Machnies à communiquer" (Machines to communicate), Cité des Sciences
et de l’Industrie, Paris, France.
1992 -
"Remplissez un réservoir par téléphone" (Fill a reservoir by
telephone), A.R.S.L.A.B. Arts Sciences Technologies, Mole Antonelliana museum,
Turin, Italy.
1993 -
"Les miradors de la Paix", (The watchtowers of the Peace), Border
ex-Yugoslavia.
1994 -
Holder of the "Pulpit of the Sciences of the Information and the
Communication" of the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis/Séminaire
Antipolis/Séminaire Fred Forest, Museum of Modern Art and Contemporary Art of
Nice.
- personal
exhibition "Le Territoire du m2" (The Territory of m2), Gallery
Donguy, France.
1995 -
"De Casablanca à Locarno" (From Casablanca to Locarno), mediatic and
telematic Action (National Swiss TV and radio + Internet), Grand Prix of the
City of Locarno,
1996 -
"Le Territoire des Réseaux" (The Territory of Networks), Creation on
Internet, Imagina 96, Gallery Pierre Nouvion Monaco.
- Sale in world
premiere on Internet of the digital work Parcelle/Réseau, Hôtel Drouot Paris.
1998 -
"J’arrête le temps" (I stop the time), creation of a work-network
within the "Feast of the Internet".
1999 -
"La machine à travailler le temps" (The machine to work the time),
creation of a work-network and of an installation within the framework of the
exhibition Art Virtuel Esapace Landowski Boulogne Billancourt.
-
"Touch-me" creation of a digital work, Milia 99.
- "Le
Techno-mariage" (The techno-marriage), mediatic event and creation of a
network work
- "Le centre
du monde, perdu et retrouvé dans les réseaux" (The centre of the world,
lost and found in networks), interactive multimedia installation + Internet,
Espace Pierre Cardin Paris
2000 -
"Internet graffiti", Feast of the Internet 2000
Co-founder of the Collective of Sociological
Art in 1974, he supports in 1984 in Sorbonne a doctoral thesis of State on the
Aesthetics of the communication. With Mario Costa, holder of the Pulpit of
Aesthetics of the University of Salerne and Derrick de Kerckhove, director of
the Program Marshall Mc Luhan at the University of Toronto, he creates an
International Research Group, in which participate Roy Ascott, David Rokeby,
Norman White… He taught the video to Cergy's national School of Art, and was
appointed holder of the "Pulpit of the Sciences of the Information and
the Communication" of the University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis, where
he steers, from the Museum of Modern Art and Contemporary Art, a seminar of
international fame.
He represented France to the Biennal of
Venice and to the Documenta of Kassel. He made some experimental broadcasts
on radio and TV, notably on the Belgian, Swiss, Italian, Israeli, Brazilian and
French national channels. In 1991 the forces of opposition in Bulgaria support
his candidature at the post of President of the national TV on a project of
interactive and utopian television. "La Bible Electronique" (The
Electronic Bible), "les Miradors de la Paix" (the Watchtowers of the
Peace) which he implants on the border of ex-Yugoslavia, his multimedia action,
"De Locarno à Casablanca, l’amour revu et corrigé par l’Internet"
(from Locarno to Casablanca, the love revised and corrected by the Internet),
are so many spectacular actions, which constitute symbolic devices, "works"
of our time, which will have a considerable media impact - demonstrating
that the current art is not only an affair of museum, market and elitist
public!
The work which this artist leads constitutes
a thought on the very communication, its codes, its diversion, its
ideological, symbolic and aesthetic foundations. In a historic situation of
break, unprecedented, Fred Forest asserts: "That it is necessary to invent
today the other forms of art, and not to repeat models of past, obsolete."
The role of the artist being, on one hand, to put in "sensitive"
evidence, how the generalized practice of the communication and of the
networks interacts on all systems of perception, of representation, of our
imagination and, on the other hand, to place us in situation to experiment
this new environment, indicated by the word of: CYBERSPACE.
Besides, he always insists on the function
of "wake-uper" of the artist, who is there, today as yesterday, to
make sense, to ask the fundamental questions and to introduce a certain
"spiritual" dimension without which "the promised life would be
only theater of shadows, in a laboratory populated with electronic gadgets."