Jacob Wiener
Avis aux navigateurs - Installation - 2017
presented as part of the exhibition panorama 19
My time is one of Spanish colonies, of children’s
books, of digital cartography, of aviation
pioneers, of package holidays, of desert trading
posts, of postcards, of lost loves, of imaginary
loves, of drone footage, of shipwrecks, of social
networks, of distant stars, of real estate agents,
of online video posts, of faraway climes, of day
for night scenes turned into sleepless nights…
Everyone dreams in their own way, with the
tools at their disposal. Money and connectivity
have now made it possible to visualise, prepare,
download, upgrade (and thus prevent) any
feeling of escape.
But what algorithms guide our steps? What urges
us to follow the ceaseless flow of online images
and shared desires that make up our Internet
browsing history?
The accumulation of experiences, of youth,
of emotional blunders, of wasted privilege and
opportunities, but just as much good faith and
especially obsessive research in the virtual
world, has materialised here in a constant loop
of images that addresses the precarious balance
between the uniqueness of individual dreams
and the unfathomable banality of our collective
fantasies of elsewhere.
Since neither my real-life adventures nor my
addictive online “explorations” have ever singlehandedly
contributed to the romantic quality
of my films, I let them both play out here, side
by side, in the hope that together they may fully
reflect the dreams I once had.
Jacob Wiener
Born in Los Angeles in 1986, Jake Wiener graduated from Hampshire College (Massachusetts) in 2008, and has worked on and off as a film projectionist, archivist, production assistant, and location scout. He spends his time between Paris, New York, and Tangier. Along with a close network of family, friends, and fellow travellers, he has amassed a large transatlantic archive of super 8 and 16mm footage documenting his travels and personal relationships. He is interested in the tangible, physical qualities of film as a medium of personal and romantic communication, as well as its enduring yet compromised use as a stable archival material. He began his course at Le Fresnoy, Studio national des arts contemporains in 2015.
