SECONDE NATURE and ZINC are digital imagination incubators that have been working for several years towards fostering and promoting contemporary creation, advancing the understanding of the world in the digital age, and helping audiences appropriate technologies to develop their creativity and emancipation.

The two associations organise the Biennale of Digital Imagination, whose third edition will be held from November 10, 2022 to January 23, 2023. After having explored the theme of Levitation during the first edition, then the concept of Eternity, the topic that will be explored is Night in 2022.

Much like levitation and the quest for eternity that we addressed in 2018 and 2020, nighttime connects us to dreams, to imagination, and the power of transformation by providing a new way of seeing things and beings. These notions, both spatial and temporal, offer a period of immobilisation and therefore have a subversive and political dimension. The night as a possible heterotopia will bring this trilogy to a close.

By inviting Belgium (Wallonia – Brussels – Flanders) to draw up the programme together, the Biennale presents a unique opportunity to discover the vitality of these digital art scenes – resolutely dynamic and transdisciplinary, drawing from a culture of plurality and multiplicity to present a whole era – in the south of France.

Kris Verdonck is presenting BOGUS I and Lawrence Malstaf created FLOOD. Both installations can be discovered at Friche la Belle de Mai in Marseille (F).

Biennale Chroniques
Friche la Belle de Mai
Kris Verdonck
Lawrence Malstaf

Is what we see really what it seems? In BOGUS I by Kris Verdonck, four large-scale inflatables appear and disappear, like a jack-in-the-box. They are the ghost of growth, industry, entertainment and destruction. The performative scenography for a disappearing humanity, and the traces that remain.

The name BOGUS is reminiscent of the word ‘bogey’, an evil spirit, a source of fear; BOGUS is a materialisation of the false ghosts that pursue us. BOGUS I – a synonym for ‘fake’ – has a mysterious, ghostlike appearance. It grows and then shrinks until it fits back into the box it came from. The birth and disappearance of a twinkling sculpture; this is the ultimate magic.

Kris Verdonck
Biennale Chroniques

An ageing robot is trapped in a room filled with reindeer hair. The machine struggles to raise itself, loses balance and collapses violently. Millions of hairs fly up and temporarily fill the air. They descend quietly and the machine starts another attempt in a long Sisyphean cycle. Is it a state of conflict or an attempt for symbiosis in the eternal drama of order and chaos?  

Lawrence Malstaf has developed various projects exploring the clash and symbiosis of technology and nature. In the dark cage of Flood the wild animal is replaced by a trapped robot. Clouds of pure delicate reindeer hair effortlessly escape the machine. 

Its purpose or problem is unclear. Does it need help with its renegade neural network? Some say AI technology will soon be a much bigger challenge than the current environmental crisis. Yet techno-enthusiasts argue it’s precisely AI that can solve… everything. 

Lawrence Malstaf
Biennale Chroniques

FLOOD is a new installation in coproduction with CHRONIQUES CREATIONS PLATFORM, supported by la DRAC Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, la Région Sud Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, la Ville de Marseille et l’Institut français à Paris. In coproduction with iMAL.
With the support of De Vlaamse Gemeenschap.