At Play

What explains archives’ mysterious force? Slave to history, subject to the information they generously provide, archives stand on the brink. They have yet to be relegated to the status of fossilised remnants, like the mere vestiges and the holy relics.

This project explores phobia through twelve videos and many notes–absurd fears, where there is nothing to fear, really. During these two years, I looked into the history of philosophy for traces of philosopher’s phobias. I believe I have found a few : Descartes certainly had a phobia of water. I have also tried various philosophical and unphilosophical cures. I have tried to joke about my phobias. Following a side-remark in Baudelaire’s diary, I have tried running a marathon. I tried laying on a psychoanalyst’s couch. But, in the end, I resolved to adopt Bachelard’s cure, and submit to a sort of an imaginary training. It is like re-accomplishing the labors of Hercules so as to master in imagination all kinds of dangers. I have turned myself into an ImOrg (like one speaks of a Cyborg) : an Imaginary Organism.

The Petriverse of Pierre Jardin cements a breccia with traditions by cobbling together conglomerate materials, including California geology and Chinese lithophilia, rock-gardening and eco-philosophy, concrete poetry, and land art.