"The Surrealists used pen and brush to bring their visions to life. In this new century, our brush is digital, our canvas is virtual, and our ink is made of data.”
- Obvious
As we celebrate the centenary of André Breton's Manifesto of Surrealism this year, the trio of French artists and researchers Obvious have decided to pay tribute to this movement with a new series of innovative works. Resulting from research carried out with the scientific team at the ICM (Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière, Paris), IMAGINE by Obvious is a genuine exploration of the meanders of the human mind. The exhibition features works created using the Mind-to-Image process, which enables images to be generated directly from brain activity, thus fulfilling a century later the Surrealists' wish for immediate, direct creation, in the same way as automatic writing. Almost premonitory, André Breton and Philippe Soupault had chosen the title “The Magnetic Fields” for the founding text of automatic writing they had written together in 1919. With striking intuition, the Surrealists expressed the idea that waves, vibrations, could give access to the invisible, to things that the eyes alone could not discern. Obvious took them at their word.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Obvious is a French collective of artists and researchers composed of Hugo Caselles-Dupré (1993), Pierre Fautrel (1993) and Gauthier Vernier (1993). Their work has been presented in numerous institutions: National Art Museum of China (Beijing, 2019), King Fahd Cultural Centre (Ryad, 2019), Hermitage Museum (Saint Petersburg, 2019), Haus der Kunst (Munich, 2020), Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie (Paris, 2021), Rencontres d'Arles (Arles, 2022) or K11 Art Museum (Hong Kong, 2022). Their works can also be found in many private collections. They live and work in Paris.
Obvious is a French collective of artists and researchers composed of Hugo Caselles-Dupré (1993), Pierre Fautrel (1993) and Gauthier Vernier (1993). Their work has been presented in numerous institutions: National Art Museum of China (Beijing, 2019), King Fahd Cultural Centre (Ryad, 2019), Hermitage Museum (Saint Petersburg, 2019), Haus der Kunst (Munich, 2020), Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie (Paris, 2021), Rencontres d'Arles (Arles, 2022) or K11 Art Museum (Hong Kong, 2022). Their works can also be found in many private collections. They live and work in Paris.
