by Gabrielle Giattino

With Illusion is a Revolutionary Weapon Loris Gréaud sets in motion a complex system of unattainable experiences. A multi-track exhibition with no center. A vast network of projects spanning continents and collapsing time. Illusion is a Revolutionary Weapon will manifest itself in the binding between projects rather than the discrete events geographically defined by London, Los Angeles, Milan, New York, Tokyo and Vilnius. On city streets, building sites and playing fields, in public parks and gallery spaces, the works will take their start: from there extending and thwarting perception. Spreading through phone lines, radio waves, television emissions and eventually through rumors and hearsay, units of information relating to the project will cross over, run together and cancel each other - obscuring experience.

Rooted in the deceptive potential of the transmission of information, the project – and its title – stems from the 1970 William Burroughs essay, "The Electronic Revolution", in which the conspiratory capabilities of mass communication and mass confusion are elaborated. Cut-up techniques and the playback of multi-layers of recorded information stand to threaten the comfort of knowledge.

Illusion is a Revolutionary Weapon projects are linked – entangled in a quantum mechanical sense – so that though spatially or physically distant from each other, the discrete forms that exist separately refer to one another: they influence each other and exist in an associated system. Gréaud enables this network as much as the viewers activate it. The impossibility of actually viewing all these projects renders many dark holes in the experience of the Illusion project, but it is the unobtainable complete experience itself which defines the project. One could consider that the project exists in its pure form when not viewed at all, a classic conceptual work - for once illuminated, a project’s potential is diminished.

In Tokyo, with Item Idem and Assistant, Gréaud becomes a director for a building’s destruction. In the style of Gordon Matta-Clark’s first cuttings, a demolition company will be brought in to raze a structure. In opposition the Matta-Clark’s methods, however, instead of keeping the event private – only to be documented by a film crew – the Gréaud project will be attended by seated viewers. Bags will be checked at the entrance and all cameras and recording devices will be off-limits. The only record of this theatrical event will be the anecdotes and experiences of those present, and, perhaps, a mountain of pirate images.

Layers of sound – a voice track that becomes incomprehensible, and then engenders new meaning as if in foreign tongue – is the point of departure for Gréaud’s project in Milan. Transforming the sound of an early Steve Reich tape piece, “It’s Gonna Rain”, into overlapping radio signals, Gréaud will control the light entering and leaving the space through the ten windows of the gallery. Moving electric blinds will mimic the stops, starts and lags of the Reich work. Lapses of sound and meaning are transferring into chaotic emissions, controlling a code of light and dark.

New York will host a kind of switchboard for the Illusion project. A gallery’s answering service will be occupied by Gréaud, working with Karl Holmqvist, for diffusing information in the form of sound projects. Multi-layer recordings on this extended ext-17 project will be available anywhere and be recorded continuously and remotely, from undisclosed locations during the two months of the Illusion project. The non-lieu of the extension project mimics the format of the global Illusion project: with no center, the recordings exist entangled in an undefined space. Following Burroughs, the layers created by the multiple voice tracks will only proliferate the possibility for playback to incite confusion. Information, reports, theories, riddles, noises, lies - swarming around Illusion is a Revolutionary Weapon.

My role is the hardest – to describe a project that on principle defies description. Your challenge is clear – listen to the rumors, spread your own, make your theories, build a binding, but bear in mind that limits approach an infinity as values are pinned on position, time and speed. The more light you shed on a moving target, the quicker it escapes you.

>> ILLUSION IS A REVOLUTIONARY WEAPON
Swiss Institute - Contemporary Art, New York
curated by Gabrielle Giattino

ILLUSION IS A REVOLUTIONARY WEAPON with Karl Holmqvist
ext 17 sound project / extended to ext 18 and ext 19
+1 212 925 2035 -ext 17, -ext 18, -ext 19 / September + October, 2006

ILLUSION IS A REVOLUTIONARY WEAPON (PROTOTYPE)
with Karl Holmqvist / Lounge project / September 20 - October 21, 2006

Swiss Institute - Contemporary Art
495 Broadway, 3rd Floor / New York NY 10012
www.swissinstitute.net / info@swissinstitute.net
Gallery Hours: Tues - Sat 11 am - 6 pm

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>> ILLUSION IS A REVOLUTIONARY WEAPON
ESL, Los Angeles
October 3, 2006

ESL | ESTHETICS AS A SECOND LANGUAGE
3507 Eagle Rock Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90065

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>> ILLUSION IS A REVOLUTIONARY WEAPON
As part of radio.territories, London
Commissioned and presented by Resonance 104.4fm
September 10, 2006

>> (Day’s end) ILLUSION IS A REVOLUTIONARY WEAPON
With Item Idem and Assistant, Tokyo
September 11 – 16 , 2006

Public Space Commission
9, Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo

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>> ILLUSION IS A REVOLUTIONARY WEAPON
CAC TV Vilnius

CAC TV Vilnius is part of the story which has been reportedly presented during the re-runs of the episodes of the 2006 season this summer.

SI Gallery Hours: tues-sat 11-6
For more information: Gabrielle Giattino, Curator
gg@swissinstitute.net / 212 925 2035 x 13