Client: City council of Paris (Nuit Blanche 2018)

Overview

Chiromancy is an interactive colorful video art installation, a reverse shadow play where shadow gives way to light and colors. By moving his hands over a “crystal ball”, the visitor can reveal, mix and juxtapose possible futures, creating a mix of colors and images projected onto a diameter 3.2 feet mirrored sculpture. Its 280 facets then reflect the defragmented colored lights onto the surrounding walls of tulle. With one gesture, the visitor controls the light and colors of the whole environment .A truly magical experience!

Goals

Chiromancy is the claim of foretelling the future through the study of the palm. Here, the title reveals itself as an ironic comment on that practice: the hands do reveal signs, but they are so numerous and constantly changing that you can’t make sense of them. The foretelling of the future appears to be an illusion, a magic trick, an empty hand gesticulation. The visitor is the only creator of his future. And that is exactly what he becomes, a creator, when he performs and interacts with the virtual reality of “Chiromancy”. He is the artist behind an ephemeral and unique work of art, that changes his surroundings in a very real, impactful way. As for the audience, the experience of watching the hands of the visitor revealing different video clips, creating a true cadavre exquis according to their own choreography, is hypnotizing as it is immersive thanks to the ever changing landscape of colored moving shapes of the surroundings.

Process

Chiromancy was commissioned by the Paris city council through an open call to participate at la Nuit Blanche 2018. Nuit Blanche is a contemporary art festival which goal is to create in-situ artwork that can appeal to all types of audience. We were assigned a classroom in an elementary school for the installation and only had one day to set it up. We thought about creating Chiromancy in this surrounding because the theme of the future seemed appropriate with a school environment. Our concern about the future is also reflected in the fact that as far as public art goes, we want to create inclusive, interactive and participative large scale artwork with as little material as possible in order to promote sustainability and minimize carbon footprint. Chiromancy is available for international touring.

Additional Information

Nuit Blanche Paris presents more then 200 artworks and Chiromancy was picked as on one of the top installation by French national radio journalist Julien Baldaccino.