As the veneer of democracy starts to fade at Galerie Derouillon, Paris

Mark Stewart, “As the veneer of democracy starts to fade” 1985

As the veneer of democracy starts to fade
Some say the internment camp’s already built

It was one of those ambiguous days of rising tension
I remember drunks saying it could never happen here
As the more subtle forms of coercion proved ineffective
More and more sophisticated surveillance techniques are introduced

Subsonic and stroboscopic stun guns
The scavengers cannot take it much longer

As the small bands of interference realize they are totally unprepared for what lies ahead

Police computer banks linked to medical, financial, and political records
Magnetic card-carry as a means of identification

At the heart of the military-industrial complex the scavengers cannot take it much longer(…)

Taken from Mark Stewart’s 1985 album, “As the veneer of democracy starts to fade” evokes a democracy that does not disappear abruptly, but slowly crumbles from within, at its very foundations.

For a long time, cyberpunk fiction has embodied the fantasy of a dystopian urban landscape, where policies of population control extend from the design of cities to the manipulation of emotions through synesthetic devices. This fantasy finds an echo today in the real-world transformations of  urban space, largely  influenced by  capitalist, military, and security  logics, where power extends as it sees fit: the use of ultrasonic cannons, sirens, and loudspeakers in public spaces; low-altitude flights of subsonic aircraft; the humming of ventilation systems; the proliferation of electromagnetic waves from surveillance networks; and the sounds of demolition and construction marking the partitioning of certain zones or the tentacular expansion of urban planning.

These transformations profoundly alter the atmosphere of cities and, by extension, our sensory relationship  to  the built environment.  A. N.  Whitehead defines  the “vibrational  nexus” as  the totality of ultrasonic and infrasonic frequencies that continuously influence sensory responses, placing the body in a state of constant tension with its environment. Sound and noise become central actors in the urban experience: they shape the affective tone of spaces and transform the conditions of perception. In this landscape, the military apparatus does not present itself as an externalfigure. It infiltrates urban systems, integrates itself, and camouflages itselfwithin architectures. It operates from discreet spaces, where it becomes difficult to distinguish what pertains to the ordinary functioning of the city from what pertains to its logic of control (E. Sene). This  shift  produces  an  unstable  environment, where vibratory flows  play a central role. The urban fabric and its architecture/“anarchitecture*” are no longer content merelyto shelter: they transmit, amplify, and affect.

The  exhibition  brings together a body of work that takes these transformations  as  its  point  of departure. Some pieces explore how memory and perception shape our relationship to places, revealing how  these frameworks become fragile, and at times unstable, particularly in tense socio-political contexts (K. Gavasheli, L. Yenirce). Others shift language, sound, or architecture itself into  states  of matter where what was  legible  becomes  a trace,  a residue,  or a vibration, where clarity dissolves into sub-perceptible forms (K. Gavasheli, N. Gale, G. Matta-Clark). Sculptures conceived in situ, meanwhile, focus on the very structures of the city and examine the nature of suburban areas, while functioning as an extension of  the exhibition space (B. Ginsburg,  E.  Sene).  Collectively, the works  create  a tension  between  biological,  industrial,  and political forms, and demonstrate how the built environment directly influences psychological states.

What emerges is not a  homogeneous system, but an ambiance, an interactive and diffuse atmosphere, made up of frictions and instabilities,  where living conditions and conditions of perception merge. To listen closely is to pay attention to the power dynamics that run through these territories. Their reconfiguration shapes an ecology of fear**, often a vector of stress and violence,revealing psychological gray zones—areas where dissociation and a lack of discernment can emerge (E. Beguinot). In this context, collective initiatives serve as anchor points from which bastions of psychological and physical resistance can form, both against institutions and against the changes that overwhelm, disorient, and weaken us.

–Clément Caballero

*Anarchitecture, Gordon Matta Clark (1943-1978, États-Unis)
**Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster, Mike Davis, 1998