2024
60 images on baryta paper, 24*36cm, plexiglass frame, floor stickers, five channels sound loop.
In a quest to performatively exhaust himself, Augustin Lignier reaches for the unreachable.
“Turning Point” is equal parts obsession with a single movement and a poetic commentary on the act of image-making—or perhaps on living a life (you choose).Lignier undertakes the seemingly simple task of jumping and turning across a circle, aiming to land perfectly at the camera’s shutter. His tedious search for the perfect shot — where the gaze is right, the body is aligned, and the heel hovers just above the ground — offers a curious take on the decisive moment but also serves a surprisingly simple and apt metaphor for liminality, a space of change. Whether a response to the world or a self-reflection, this series sends you on a ride from a good laugh to anxiety, and back. The 60 images displayed out of 6,000 taken stand as a testament to photography's eternal promise to capture the ephemeral and a psychological portrait of our ever-pursuing, ever-unsatisfied human nature.A dizzying spiral with a floor instruction that has no beginning or end. Accompanied by a relentless soundtrack of triggering sounds, he prompts us to either join in the performance or give up to our own confusion. Lignier competes with the camera, plays with the audience and mocks the very act of photography itself.
Text by Anna Konstantinova
Photography, Installation, Sound
2024
16 blocks : 90*90*225cm, Wood, Blueback
Contract : A4 Laser print and hand writting
Selfportrait : 100*191cm Baryta print mounted on aluminium and framed
The process was simple: the artist would engage with strangers in the street by simply winking at them in order to generate a human connection. Anyone who winked back would automatically also become a participant in the performance, their photograph serving as a record of the connection made. The performance culminated in the participant signing a contract.
Through Wink Piece, Lignier elicits reflection and dialogue on the nature of human connection in our increasingly digitized world. He asks us to review the authenticity of our interactions, inviting us to consider how we behave online. The artist does not seek to criticize virtual interaction but rather to challenge it or the individual user-by encouraging reflection on how each of us navigates social media and networking platforms: how do we act online? And, as a result,how does our behavior change offline? ls it the tools or our behavior that sets the tone? Who is pulling the strings that determine our actions? And finally, what does what we see in our feeds say about us?
Text by Georgina Casparis
Photography
2024
Mono Channel video with sound
00:00:04 loop
We are consummer of content in a world where algorithms shape what we see. We are immersed in endless cycles of images and videos that, like this repeated phrase, trap us in echo chambers. The algorithm creates a personalized experience, but this personalization leads to a repetition that prevents new ideas from emerging. The viewer, caught in this algorithmic loop, gradually loses the ability to discern the beginning or end of information.The video illustrates this reality: a good algorithm, on the surface, appears to offer us relevant content, but it ultimately traps us in repetitive cycles, where the line between essential and superficial fades away.
2023
Amazon safe, drill, analog paper framed
Variable dimension
Performative installation featuring an Amazon home safe, immerses the performer in a meticulous task within the safe—methodically drilling a hole. A sheet of sensitive photographic paper is display inside. The paper is capturing the result, a photograph of the performer. This black box becomes a metaphor for photography in our digital era, drawing bridges between the camera obscura—a darkened room with a small hole at one side through which an image is projected onto a wall opposite the hole—and our relationship with visual media within the digital society. It prompts reflection on the ways in which our perception of security and privacy may be compromised in the pursuit of capturing and sharing images. The project sheds light on the thin line between technology and human expression. It invites us to consider our place as both creators and subjects in a world where the boundaries of image-making and privacy are continually redefined.
Performance
Various Gorilla Suits
Eleven prints and one mirror
Inkjet Glossy Print
Chrome framed
24*30cm
Primitive Action
Site specific video performance
Video looped with sound
00:06:14
Beamer, screen, loud speakers
Dog Stereo Cat
Performance
Duration: 3:28:20
Flightcase, slideshow, microphone, speakers, amplifier, beamer
Container
White box, neons, plinth, book, screens, speakers
Book
White Cell
18x24cm
1498 pages
Videos looped with sound
AAAAH : 00:30:00
Blackdot : 00:06:27
Eye Cleaning : 00:04:26
Text by Bruno Ceschel
2022
Colony of ants (Messor Barbarus), Plexiglass Box, print on edible paper and ink, water, seeds.61*45*6cm
Performative ecosystem that encompasses humans, machines, and animals. It delves into the intricate dynamics of a colony of ants engaged in a meticulous task within a framed installation: precisely cutting out an image of a coin from a human hand. This tableau serves as a metaphor for the multifaceted processes of image segmentation and the evolving nature of work in our digital era. Drawing bridges between the 18th-century Mechanical Turk, a deceptive automaton mimicking human chess-playing, and the Amazon Mechanical Turk, a platform facilitating microtasking for training autonomous systems, Crowdsourcing, in its expanded scope, becomes a critique of our collective behaviour within digital society. Display our unconscious contributions to the labor for Big Tech companies, prompting contemplation on our digital interactions and roles in a technologically driven world. The project provocatively challenges viewers to reassess their involvement in digital ecosystems, urging reflection on the complex processes concealed behind seemingly simple tasks. By emphasising the parallels between human, machine, and ant labor, it invites us to consider our place in a world where the lines between species and technologies blur.
Installation
2022
Fujiflex print mounted on aluminium box
70*100cm
A hole in a metallic tube, a text emerges on the back, not intentionally placed, revealing the artist’s profound reflection on his experiences working for Amazon Mechanical Turk.The image an emotional journey within the digital workforce. The metallic tube, with its industrial aesthetic, takes on symbolic significance, representing the rigid and often dehumanizing structures of online labor platforms. The hole in the tube serves as a poignant focal point, suggesting a breach or rupture in the seamless facade of automated work.The text inscribed on the image offers a raw and honest glimpse into the artist’s emotions during his engagement with Amazon Mechanical Turk, a complex blend of frustration, dehumanization, and a paradoxical sense of liberation. It prompts viewers to reflect on the blurred boundaries between human and machine, the impact of digital platforms on individual autonomy, and the harsh realities of unpaid labor in the gig economy.
Photography