Chronicles of the Dark Sun

Director: Gwenola Wagon

Text: Pierre Cassou-Noguès

Video, 17 min, colour, stereo, sound

2023

In a dystopian future, humans have had to block out the sun in order to survive on Earth. Drought is extreme and the planet is gradually turning into a scorching desert where the survivors, installed in the basements of the great observatories, live in perpetual darkness. To compensate for the image of a sun they can no longer see, they instruct an artificial intelligence program to reconstruct it. The AI is supervised by a young woman whose mental images are particularly vivid.

Drawing on the photo-novel structure of Chris Marker's film La Jetée (1962), Chronicles of the Dark Sun work on a science fiction narrative in which, as in Marker's film, an algorithm is tasked with reconstructing the past using an image from the protagonist's childhood. By recycling photographs from personal albums, advertising images and scientific snapshots, all of which are reprocessed by an AI, the film examines our relationship with technology in a disturbing and ironic way. This work is an uncanny fable that makes us think about the deformation of reality in AI as well as the unsustainability of our way of inhabiting the planet.

Production with the support of Hangar Y, in partnership with l’Observatoire de Paris-PSL, for " Prendre le Soleil" exhibition (December 2023 - April 2024) Curators : Aurélie Baron, Luce Lebart et Marta Ponsa

Chronicles of the Dark Sun. Gwenola Wagon Produced with the support of Hangar Y
Chronicles of the Dark Sun. Gwenola Wagon Produced with the support of Hangar Y
Chronicles of the Dark Sun. Gwenola Wagon Produced with the support of Hangar Y
Chronicles of the Dark Sun. Gwenola Wagon Produced with the support of Hangar Y
Chronicles of the Dark Sun. Gwenola Wagon Produced with the support of Hangar Y
Chronicles of the Dark Sun. Gwenola Wagon Produced with the support of Hangar Y
Chronicles of the Dark Sun. Gwenola Wagon Produced with the support of Hangar Y
Chronicles of the Dark Sun. Gwenola Wagon Produced with the support of Hangar Y
Chronicles of the Dark Sun. Gwenola Wagon Produced with the support of Hangar Y
Chronicles of the Dark Sun. Gwenola Wagon Produced with the support of Hangar Y
Chronicles of the Dark Sun. Gwenola Wagon Produced with the support of Hangar Y
Chronicles of the Dark Sun. Gwenola Wagon Produced with the support of Hangar Y

Press

Clémentine Mercier, Héliotropisme, «Prendre le Soleil», expo éblouissante à Meudon, Libération, 11 janvier 2024.

Diffusion

Produced with the support of Hangar Y, in partnership with l’Observatoire de Paris-PSL, for " Prendre le Soleil" exhibition (December 2023 - April 2024)

Credits

Production and editing: Gwenola Wagon

Concept: Pierre Cassou-Noguès and Gwenola Wagon

Text: Pierre Cassou-Noguès

Graphics and credits: a href="https://old.atlasprojectos.net/archive.htm" target="_blank">Nuno da Luz

Assistant editor: Cécile Bicler

Original music, sound design and mixing: Kerwin Rolland

Guitar performance: Marie Solies

Adaptation of the Lugubre Gondole by Franz Liszt

With: Cécile Bicler, Pierre Cassou-Noguès, Gurwann Tran Van Gie

Photographs of memories: Bernard Wagon

Images transformed with Gen2.

Produced with the support of Hangar Y, in partnership with l’Observatoire de Paris-PSL, for the " Prendre le Soleil" exhibition (December 2023 - April 2024)

Acknowledgements Aurélie Baron, Luce Lebart and Marta Ponsa, Vincent Coudé du Foresto, Miguel Montargès and Observatoire de Paris-PSL