PRESENTATION

For 6 years now Arborescence has offered you, each year the opportunity to refine your way of looking at new forms of contemporary creation, by exploring fields of artistic expression related to technological development whose current terminol-ogy, which still carries a debate, is « digital art ».

Far from having imposed a singular aesthetic, we, however, take note of the changes and new prospectives generated in this field of ex-pression. Specifically, concepts of interactivity, partici-pative and generative work, of Net art that induce a new relationship with the public...The technological phenomenon revolutionized many aspects of our society - individual and collective behavior, urban and natural environment - but it seems important to us to remain vigilant of the use of technological progress and its col-lateral consequences, in order to preserve our environment.It is the message, which particularly conveys our image this year, created by one of our major artists: Jean Michel Bruyère.

This « mélo-dramatic » image is a glimpse of the domination of machine over man, an opposite course to the collective imagination that returns us to the futuristic idea of a man-robot. Is it not that we confront a threat of physiological and mental mutation of man in reaction to the use of technology?

This year, between the 6th and 14th October, Arborescence invites the public to think about this question by stating it with several themes : « light », with, in particular, a series of contemporary tributes to Cézanne, « video games » with a specific approach to interactivity, and a program reflecting both sides of the Mediterranean.

In the form of a promenade open to everyone, festive and marked out with surprises, come to experience, specifically on the 7th October, these artists’ proposals from around the world, linked by the desire to present both a critical and an aesthetic vision of these new means of communication and creation.