ceci (est un magasin de vêtements)

Magic tricks - Urban Tactics     #1 Disappearing 

silkscreen prints with various media (iron powder, elderberry juice, citric acid)

Our investigation starts at a spot in Marchienne-au-Pont. A massive stone lies in front of a metal gate. We wonder about the things around us and how they continue to appear and disappear. Are we involved? We took a picture of the place and set up a lab in a local diy store. Here, we test ways to impact the presence of the stone. Results are neither certain nor lasting.

Causality is the relation between an event (the cause) and a second event (the effect), where the second event is understood as a consequence of the first.
Though the causes and effects are typically related to changes or events, candidates include objects, processes, properties, variables, facts, and states of affairs; characterizing the causal relation can be the subject of much debate. [1]

Magic combines multiple principles of attention, expectation, awareness, trust and perception. Magic techniques can provide methods and insights in how the brain constructs a model of the outside world from moment to moment, or what we think of as objective reality. [2]

There are many ways of making a stone (dis)appear.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causality


[2] Science and society: Attention and awareness in stage magic: turning tricks into research, Nature Reviews Neuroscience 9, 871-879 (November 2008)

Magic tricks - urban tactics  is a project that has been developed during a residency in Charleroi, Marchienne-au-Pont, hosted by Hotel Charleroi in 2013.

Magic Tricks Urban Tactics addresses the impact of stories, narration and clichés on inhabited/urban space. We chose two points of departure 1) a spot that we came acres during one of our walks in Marchienne-au-Point where a huge rock was deposited in front of a metal gate. 2) scientific studies about manipulation of the human perception by magic tricks.

During the time we spent heard various and often antagonistic explanations for the presence of the stone that blocked the gate. But we decided not to investigate any of them. Instead we searched for ways to impact the appearance / disappearance of the stone. We set up a laboratory in the paint department of a local DIY store where we experimented with different sorts of paint and ink using various substances - such as iron oxide, iron gall ink, elderberries, vinegar - which would react to UV light, humidity or the specific acidity of the paper. During the exhibition period people were invited to visit us in a disused factory where we produced screen prints from a photography of the stone, to pass by our laboratory in the DIY store or to have a walk to the stone in front of the gate.