Installations

The Cockpit.

During the development of the third version of the Mega Model, Gilles Barbier had the feeling that his initial project was gradually metamorphosing into a vessel, something like an ark. The installation’s gravitational pull attracts a host of elements that are arranged in extensions, updates and applications, in a global architecture reminiscent of a software program. But this software-vessel has no pilot. At least, not formally. As the third version – or update – of his project drew to a close, Gilles Barbier noted that no space had been provided to accommodate the directive entity. This gap gave rise to the Cockpit, the mothership’s cockpit.

The artist gives it the appearance of a drifting raft, buoyed by four barrels of lubricant. The figurehead is a banana peel, the cargo is, according to his lexicon, winds in power (flageolets and fayots), mussels and hulls watch the horizon line (the exhibition surface) chanting philosophers’ first names… The three pilots are embodied in three specific mental pathologies.

The schizophrenic: He multiplies scenarios, crosses them and records them.
The manic-depressive is constantly dismantling and reassembling the ship, finding new arrangements.
The eidete records all information, without sorting or hierarchy.

This cockpit is open, accessible to the public, as hacking is recommended.