Pauline Bastard : Alex

The latest project from Pauline Bastard – a promising artist-director and recent winner of the Audi Talents Awards prize – is an attempt to simulate the life and experiences of a man who doesn’t actually exist. For this innovative installation piece, the beautiful surrounds of research space Collège des Bernardins have been given over to ten or so screens showing videos of around an hour each. With the help of a lawyer, a scriptwriter, a psychologist, an anthropologist and an actor, Bastard has attempted to give reality and substance to the eponymous fictional character. Filming events from across his very ordinary life (walking, meeting people, finding a housemate, even opening a bank account), the artist aims to question the notions of identity and personality, asking what it actually means to be a person and what constitutes their ‘livingness’.

The immersive design of the exhibit places the spectator at the heart of the images, encouraging them to get to know Alex inside out and build up their own conception of his character. Envisaged as a full-length film split across several screens, ‘Alex’ is a captivating experience from start to finish.

TRANSLATION: HUW OLIVER