Names: Automne Perillard, Aurore Deserres, Véronique Paradis and Jean Huppé
Title: A.I. (Artificial Incompetence)
Portrait of the team, with Robin in his final form!
Material Requirements:
- Enough to transport everything on site. We're trusting you for this.
- Industrial acrylic paint in pots (several colours: at least magenta, blue, yellow);
- Bucket of white spirit (already in our possession, but needs to be refilled);
- Portable generator with extension lead (already in our possession);
- Robin (already in our possession).
Abstract:
The piece is an installation centred on Robin, an autonomous industrial robot (hence the name) with a primitive form of artistic consciousness. Robin transcended his condition as an industrial egg-beater and was scrapped by the factory where he worked following an incident in which he created a mural using beaten eggs on a wall adjacent to his workstation. We decided to use his talents for the benefit of art, and our team of co-authors spent several weeks equipping him to realise his ambitions in a life-size setting.
We communicate with Robin using rolls of paper placed on the ground, on which he writes messages using rough pictograms. Thanks to this method, he was able to tell us about his desire to become a street artist, rather than a run-of-the-mill industrial eggbeater.
"Cracked Egg"
(Acrylic on wall, Robin, 04/04/23)
After much trial and adjustment, we've fitted Robin with a wide brush instead of his original beater, shifted his consciousness into a 360° telescopic robotic arm, and provided him with several pots of acrylic paint placed in a circle around his base, as well as a bucket of white spirit so that he can change colours at will. However, Robin has his own interests and obsessions — despite our encouragement to make engaged art, at the moment the vast majority of Robin's paintings are always depicting eggs or something made with eggs.
Initially, we plan to exhibit this installation in the premises of the factory that threw Robin out, so that he can finally express his art fully there. Other venues have also been considered, as we would also like the general public to be able to appreciate his work and consider its deeper implications.
"Ketchup Omelette"
(Acrylic on wall, Robin, 06/12/23)
Intent:
Basically, what is art? Is it the prerogative of humans, or can a trace of snail slime be an abstract painting? Here Robin has opened our eyes in a way.
He made us realise that art, whatever its form — traditional or revolutionary, regulated or anarchist — was above all a creative impulse that transcended anything we could set against it. A desire to express something stronger than ourselves, something greater than what created us, something more abstract and complex than our origin, our conception or, more simply, our innate talents. An irresistible, almost sacred force that takes something beyond the original purpose for which it was made. Through art, this object transcends its destiny and its use, and acquires an individuality.
In a way, aren't we all machines with a specific job that we try to transcend? What does it amount to, basically, to talk about incompetence in relation to an object or a person, apart from denying this transcendence?
Like Robin, will we all one day be scrapped by this capitalist society before we can rise above the stage of disposable objects?
Reply: Proposal — A.I. (Artificial Incompetence)
Look, you guys are doing a cool thing, a very cool thing indeed. But the artist in this installation isn't you, it's Robin. So ask Robin to come up with his own project proposal with you as co-writers, and then we'll talk again.
The Evaluator
