Mixed media, 2021
To accompany the (im)material keys distributed during the opening, another kind of key was placed in the exhibition rooms. Two identical USB-type keys, each equipped with a screen, were embedded directly into the walls — one into the wall of Galerie Michel Journiac, the other into the wall of the exhibition space at Poush Manifesto.
No electronic system is connected to these objects. No visible cables. Only the small display on each key indicates that a download is in progress.
Next to each key, a technical datasheet describes its memory and transmission capacities.
From the existence of this same piece in two distinct locations arises the possibility of communication — of an exchange — between two spaces geographically distant. The work thus raises the question of our networks as extensions of our intimacy beyond the confines of the domestic sphere.
Another reading of the piece suggests that the key is recording the memory of the walls themselves — invoking the secret legacy of the gallery, whose substance the visitor might symbolically retrieve through this USB device.
Presented at Poush.Manifesto and Galerie Michel Journiac as part of the exhibition Sans feu ni lieu, 2021.
Carolle Sanchez 