Rêves premiers, Justine Emard’s first major exhibition in France, explores invisible realms: thermal signals from data centres, activated computer components, prehistoric data, and variations in magnetic fields. Bridging the gap between virtual spheres and the real world, this exhibition uses interaction and video games to foster a dialogue between artworks.

SOMNOLUX   To visualise brain activity whilst we sleep and dream, Justine Emard takes centre stage in a unique way with Somnolux. This light installation—whose name suggests the fusion of sleep and light—draws on the artist’s physiological data recorded during a single night’s sleep at the Laboratoire d’exploration du sommeil in Toulouse.   Created specifically for Le Lieu Unique venue, Somnolux forms the central element of the exhibition design, guiding the public as they explore the works.

EXOVISIONS   Forming a continuous line, natural elements collected by the artist—stones, fossils, petrified wood—catch the eye. When members of the public approach with their smartphones, the minerals come to life through augmented reality. Here, temporalities merge and the geological and the technological combine.   Between the distant past, the present, and the future, with Exovisions Emard evokes three types of memory. That of the stone, which imposes the geological scale of deep time; that of humanity, which, generation after generation, gives rise to myths and consolidates knowledge; and finally that linked to the digital realm—more recent and ambivalent—which draws on the first two to evaluate, calculate, anticipate, and project a future, an elsewhere, with a built-in obsolescence.   Augmented realiy app here :

THE FIRST DREAM   The First Dream / Hatsuyume is a triptych that gives form to three of the artist’s dreams recorded over the course of a single night. From the human mind to artistic materialisation—here, the dream is rendered in relief.

SOMNORAMA 1  (NIGHT N°6 – DREAMS 19 –23)  What might an astronaut dream of in zero gravity? Do we dream differently in space? With Somnorama I, Justine Emard invites us to explore dreamscapes far beyond Earth.

CHIM[AI]RA   Comprising a video game and a series of petrified sculptures, the installation Chim[AI]ra connects digital technologies with ancestral artistic practices. The player takes on the role of the chimeras —avatars generated by artificial intelligence from images found online— in a world that is initially red and unbreathable, in which the computer overheats under the load.  The project also includes 3D sculptures, petrified in a natural spring. This slow process symbolises an interaction between the digital and nature.

LE CHANT DES SIRÈNES  #01  Drawing on the vast digital archives of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), Justine Emard conceived this immersive installation as an embodiment of artificial intelligence, both alluring and potentially dangerous, much like the mythological figure of the siren and her song.   The work, created through precise training, becomes a space of resistance against the standardization of algorithms and challenges the stereotypical perception of dominant technologies.

HYPERPHANTASIA , FROM THE ORIGINS OF IMAGES Hyperphantasia is a vibrant ode to 38,000 years of image-making: from cave art to artificial intelligence.   The work connects two origins of the image: on the one hand, humanity’s earliest cave paintings; on the other, the pixels generated by contemporary technologies. For this installation, Justine Emard drew on a scientific database from the Chauvet-Pont d’Arc cave containing images dating back to 36,000 BCE.   At the edge of the video installation, a series of 23 sculptures materialises another space-time. Each of these 3D prints represents an astronaut’s dream in space.   From the depths of the cave to those of the brain, by way of outer space, Hyperphantasia is a fascinating work where the layers of the unconscious meet the computational power of the machine and the memory of humanity.

MYRIADES    2025   Five sculptures come to life and awaken. The installation Myriades presents the principle of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as an allegory of memory and the passage of time.

LE CHANT DES SIRÈNES #02   Sound installation, Le chant des sirènes can be heard through the programming of seven red alarms.    Using consumption data from a data centre, Justine Emard gives seven red alarms—those used in military or civil defence to warn of an urgent, dangerous, and imminent situation requiring immediate attention—a gentle voice, in contrast to their original function. This reappropriation invites the public, at the end of their journey through the exhibition, to an aw

NEURO IKEBANA 2024   The three concepts that underpin Ikebana (Japanese floral art) were conceived by the artist during an EEG recording. Three branches extend into space, emerging from the generative grammar of an L-system based on brain data. A mental ikebana is 3D-printed.

CREDITS AND THANKS

ATMOSPHERES SIMULEES 2022  A video game development workshop held at an art school by Justine Emard and Damien Baïs  – École supérieure d’arts et médias de Caen, Studio Modulaire, Supervised by Christophe Bouder, February 2024    – Ecole Média Art du Grand Chalon, Chalon-sur-Saône, Supervised by Olivier Perriquet, March 2023  – HEAD – Geneva, Haute école d’art et de design, with the help of Juan Gomez Februrary 2022