Etienne Cliquet

Artist


I present my work both on the Internet and within the framework of exhibitions.

Since 2004, my research has focused onto the practice of origami and the technologies. I try to develop an analogy between the fragility of folding, the versatility of Internet and the precariousness of our work and life in the contemporary world. By folding, i mean folding everything and not only paper. I consider that i fold information and sense as well. Such terms like explicit, implicit, implicated, complex or even applied come from Latin « Plicare », to fold.

From 1999 to 2004, i've initiated and moderated the artist's collective Teleferique : an Internet server dedicated to the downloading of programs and softwares made by artists. The interface is based on files repository with a default aesthetic. Teleferique has also organized several demos in artistic spaces (galleries, museums, run-spaces).

Computer programs hosted by Teleferique work both as tools and works: live use becomes a mode of visibility, halfway between concert and meeting or lecture. Digital works of this type need handling and configuration to be shown. "Demo or die" aesthetic comes from the MIT expression "publish or perish". If a text without a publication is nothing, a program is nothing without its demo. Parallel to the "home studio" where everyone works on his personal computer, demo operates as a meeting place to exchange between artists, public and reception spaces.