Harold Lechien

Glass Skin - Installation - 2024

presented as part of the exhibition Panorama 26

Glass Skin is a video installation that explores the porous relationship between our skin and screens. Through a series of acts combining 3D animations, films and commercial image banks, the viewer is immersed in a reflection revealing the tensions and contradictions inherent in authenticity and the staging of the self, in skincare rituals and their place in our hyper-connected daily lives. There is a constant to-and-fro between reality and fiction, between the vulnerability of physical bodies and the infinite possibilities of technology. At a time when the digital image is becoming materialised like a second skin, the tangible relationships between our bodies and images are adapting to give way to an interplay of representation and influence that transcends our affects. The visual experience of this film-installation is accompanied by sculptures representing massage chairs, offering visitors the chance to immerse themselves in the images projected onto the two screens.

Glass Skin dismantles media strategies of address to confront our bodies with the digital image, overturning our expectations: the body becomes a consumable product, while products are transformed into active bodies.

Harold Lechien


Harold Lechien, born in Belgium in 1995, lives and works in Brussels. 

He began his artistic training at La Cambre, where he studied Urban Space, before going on to obtain a master’s degree in the Engraving and Printed Image. His work takes a reflexive look at the circulation of emotions that arise in the production and emotional reception of images and industrial products. He has been continuing his studies at Le Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains since September 2023.

Production


Le Fresnoy - Studio national des arts contemporains, Tourcoing

Credits


› Assistant réalisateur : Harold Lechien
› Interprétation : Léo Gillet, Inès Guffroy, Armand Droz-Vincent, Denis Dedieu, Chun-Ting Lin, Antoinette D’Ansembourg
› Histoire originale : Harold Lechien
› Écriture : Gabriel René Franjou
› Assistante réalisateur : Zoë Seuret
› Cheffe opératrice : Liora Berliner
› Assistant caméra : Axel Guigon
› Chef électricien - machiniste : Alexandre García
› Maquillage : Chaïm Vischel, Eva Bordot
› Assistante maquillage : Manon Dequenne
› Décor : Harold Lechien
› Accessoires : Harold Lechien
› Photographe de plateau : Aurélien De Bolster
› Régie : Valentina Sofía, François De Cat
› Chorégraphe : Mathilde Delval
› Modélisation 3d : Caroline Dussuel
› Animation 3d personnage : Caroline Dussuel
› Environnements 3d : Sybil Montet
› Cadrages 3d : Sybil Montet
› Montage image : Harold Lechien
› Design sonore : Jules Cassignol
› Musique : Harold Lechien, Kevin Macleod
› Mixage : Lorenzo Targhetta
› Étalonnage : Liora Berliner