Faire écran | Mirror effect

This project questions the tangible impact of images on societal paradigm shifts. Confronted with screens that distort our faces, many people are reshaping themselves. These metamorphoses seek, in the malleability of fabrics, a space between two bodies.

Wishing to question the tangible impact of image on a certain bodily mobility and societal paradigm shift, Effet miroir looks at the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic on the use of plastic surgery. The increase in videoconferencing has led many women and men to reshape their faces. On the screens, our faces are anamorphosed, our noses magnified; more than the direct gaze of others, it is the confrontation with this medium that has been decisive in shaping these people’s vision of themselves. To reflect the metamorphoses of the body induced by societal evolution, pre- and post-surgery shots are superimposed on a computer during the shooting process. The process thus reflects the role of screens. The resulting images - profiles of chins and noses, close-ups of eyes, ears or lips - force the eye to seek out the evolution of faces in the malleability of transparent tissues.

Be yourself as another [Paul Ricoeur]

These various facial mobilities focus on the philosophical conception of eccentricity borrowed from Helmuth Plessner, in his investigation of the human from its biological and spatial dimension. A surface for reflection and projectcion, the focus on the body in these eccentric interventions directs attention towards new, situated forms of subjectivity. Within this scopic field, where the subjective camera dominates, and on the basis of research carried out with specialists, an image/text database has been compiled, giving rise to the second part of this work, Faire écran.