Fabien Giraud and Raphaël Siboni: 2045–1542 (A History of Computation)

Curator: Kevin Muhlen

Initiated in 2014, The Unmanned is a long-term project by Fabien Giraud and Raphaël Siboni in the form of a series composed of three seasons. While mimicking the classic form of a great narrative, this epic offers a history of technique that is not one of instruments and tools to serve human production, but a history of man itself as a technological production. From this reversal—and ourselves as artifacts—gradually emerges, throughout the series, an image of history as the boundless form our own uprooting.

In 2018, Fabien Giraud and Raphaël Siboni return to Casino Luxembourg to present the entire first season of The Unmanned. Made up of eight films, this first season retraces a history of computation through an exploration of the invention of modern computation and the social and political consequences of its automation in machines. Going backwards in time, it opens in 2045 with the death of Ray Kurzweil, a famous engineer and promoter of technological immortality, and closes in 1542 with the arrival of the first conquistadors and the death of animal gods in what will later become Sillicon Valley.

In addition to the support of Casino Luxembourg - Forum d’art contemporain, the first season of The Unmanned was sponsored by the Centre international d’art et du paysage de Vassière, the Lyon 2015 Biennale, the Liverpool 2016 Biennale, the Palais de Tokyo and the Fondation Kadist.

In 2018/2019 the exhibition will be prolonged at SF MOMA (United States), Fondation d’Entreprise Ricard (France), MONA (Australia) and at UQAM gallery (Canada).