Philippe Parreno Mont Analogue , 2001 Video projection ( without lens , color , sound ) Duration variable ( 2 hrs 59 min loop ) Edition of 12 ( PP 033 )
Inspired by the unfinished cult novel of the same name by René Daumal ( 1908 – 1944 ), Mont Analogue is composed of a colored light sequence spread out in a space by a projector with no lens . The progression of sequences of monochrome light is based on a translation of the novel using colorimetric mapping of ASCII ( character encoding ). The idea of transposition from one format to another , which implicates a process of producing forms through the very act of translation , is one of the most recognizable characteristics of Philippe Parreno ’ s artistic practice .
Daumal ’ s text ( published posthumously in 1952 ) has different references to philosophy and the history of religion and literature , and tells the story of a theory shared by a group of friends concerning the existence of a mountain — Mont Analogue — that equals the sum of all the mountains in the northern hemisphere put together . The expedition they set up confirms the existence of this mountain , as well as of a mysterious community that lives in its foothills , but Daumal ’ s death prevents us from knowing the outcome of their hike to the top . This unfinished tale has inspired numerous artworks , including Alejandro Jodorowsky ’ s 1973 film La montaña sagrada [ The Holy Mountain ].
The work was premiered in 2001 in three locations simultaneously – Air de Paris , Paris , Friedrich Petzel , New York , and Rirkrit Tiravanija Studio , Bangkok , while they were closed for the Christmas break . In 2002 , Mont Analogue was included in Parreno ’ s solo exhibition Alien Seasons at ARC Musée d ’ Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris , the first ‘ programmed ’ exhibition by Parreno . Throughout the exhibition ’ s duration , the lights would switch off and the Mont Analogue film would start running , colorfully illuminating museum ’ s premises . During Hypothesis , the solo exhibition at HangarBicocca in 2015-2016 , the work was exhibited without a screen , with a projector lying on the floor , playing the artwork into space . It was installed at the very end of the exhibition space , after a selection of Parreno ’ s Marquees , as if it were a final Marquee . In 2016-2017 it was one of the films that Parreno chose for his major presentation Anywhen , the Hyundai Commission at the Turbine Hall , Tate Modern , London . The selection of filmic works were projected onto wide mobile screens that were raised up and lowered down in a programmed sequence . Mont Analogue was projected onto a semitransparent screen for Parreno ’ s exhibition Thenabouts at the Australian Center for the Moving Image ( ACMI , Melbourne , 2017 ). Another work – Photomarquee – was positioned behind the screen , forming yet another configuration for the Mont Analogue installation . For the cinematic screening as a part of the Videoart at Midnight program at Babylon cinema , Berlin , 2018 , an abstract soundtrack was added to the 62-minute version of the film .
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