In a dystopian future, humans have had to block out the sun in order to survive on Earth. Drought is extreme and the planet is gradually turning into a scorching desert where the survivors, installed in the basements of the great observatories, live in perpetual darkness. To compensate for the image of a sun they can no longer see, they instruct an artificial intelligence program to reconstruct it. The AI is supervised by a young woman whose mental images are particularly vivid.

Drawing on the photo-novel structure of Chris Marker's film La Jetée (1962), Chronicles of the Dark Sun work on a science fiction narrative in which, as in Marker's film, an algorithm is tasked with reconstructing the past using an image from the protagonist's childhood. By recycling photographs from personal albums, advertising images and scientific snapshots, all of which are reprocessed by an AI, the film examines our relationship with technology in a disturbing and ironic way. This work is an uncanny fable that makes us think about the deformation of reality in AI as well as the unsustainability of our way of inhabiting the planet.

Credits

• Production and editing: Gwenola Wagon
• Concept: Pierre Cassou-Noguès and Gwenola Wagon
• Text: Pierre Cassou-Noguès
• Graphics and credits: Nuno da Luz
• Assistant editor: Cécile Bicler
• Original music, sound design and mixing: Kerwin Rolland
• Guitar performance: Marie Solies
• Adaptation of the Lugubre Gondole by Franz Liszt
• With: Cécile Bicler, Pierre Cassou-Noguès, Gurwann Tran Van Gie 
• Photographs of memories: Bernard Wagon
• Images transformed with Gen2.
• Produced with the support of Hangar Y, in partnership with l’Observatoire de Paris-PSL, for the " Prendre le Soleil" exhibition (December 2023 - April 2024)
• Acknowledgements Aurélie Baron, Luce Lebart and Marta Ponsa, Vincent Coudé du Foresto, Miguel Montargès and Observatoire de Paris-PSL

Press

Clémentine Mercier, Prendre le Soleil, expo éblouissante à Meudon, Libération, 11 janvier 2024

Almuth Spiegler, Die Flügel wachsen, wenn „Genossin Sonne“ untergeht, Klingt geheimnisvoller, als sie ist: Genossin Sonne“ in der Kunsthalle Wien bleibt im Dunkeln, Die Presse, May 2024

Nicole Scheyerer, Die revolutionäre Kraft der Sonne, ORF Topos, 23. Mai 2024

Helmut Ploebst, Festwochen-Ausstellung huldigt der Sonne als oberster Kommunistin, DerStandard, May 2024

Ulrike Mbeki, Bis zur Unendlichkeit und darüber hinaus, Bohema, 2024

Genossin Sonne, kultur-online, july 2024

Noire beauté aux couleurs du crépuscule du monde à Ventenac-en-Minervois, L'indépendant, july 2024

Martin Herbert, The Politics of the Sun, ArtReview, August 2024

Carine Bovey, Mirage architectural, Eclipse éternelle, Le chat perché, novembre 2024.

Benoit Gaboriaud, Aux Rencontres internationales Paris/Berlin, l’IA fait débat, Fisheyeimmersive, décembre 2024.

Diffusion

Exhibition Fixing Futures, Transformation and future, Artistic direction: Laura Domes, Ina Neddermeyer Museum Giersch of the Goethe University (MGGU), Frankfurt, 5 avril 2025 - 31 aout 2025

Exhibition Solar biennale #2, Mudac, Musée cantonal de design et d’arts appliqués contemporains Lausanne, 21 mars au 21 septembre 2025

Diffusion 2025 Chiayi International Art Documentary Festival Chiayi City 14 mars - 30 mars 2025

Projection, Rencontres internationales Paris / Berlin, séance Le soleil noir, Cinéma Pathé Les Fauvettes, Paris, 23 november 2024

Projection, Rencontres internationales Paris / Berlin, Séance d'ouverture, Auditorium Forum des images, Paris, 18 november 2024

Projection, Tous les détails du monde, Colloque international La Fabrique du détail, La Fémis, Paris, 8 november 2024

Projection Speculative Archives – AI films, Harvard University, US, Carpenter Center, Curator Antonio Somaini, Boston, 30 october 2024

Diffusion 29th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival, 27 october, 1 november 2024

Exhibition Paysages Ultimes – 2024, IMAGES/VENTENAC, Curator Rahmouna Boutayeb et François Moulignat, Ventenac, 2024

Exhibition Genossin Sonne Comrade Sun, Kunsthalle Wien and Wiener Festwochen | Freie Republik Wien, In cooperation with the Klima Biennale Wien, Kunsthalle Wien, Wien, 16 may - 1 september 2024

Projection, conversation avec David Zerbib Hable con ella — Dialogues avec l’IA, Galerie Analix Forever, Genève, 26 june 2024

Exhibition Hable con ella — Dialogues avec l’IA, Curator Marta Ponsa, Galerie Analix Forever, Genève, may-june2024

Exhibition Prendre le Soleil (décembre 2023 - avril 2024) Hangar Y, en partenariat avec l’Observatoire de Paris-PSL