Les méches en ligne

DV-Video presented as a “virus” in the public WLAN / intervention on public ground
in collaboration with Mona Jas

Colorful spray-painted circles on the ground of the streets and sidewalks in downtown Biel mark new territories within which our film “Les mèches en ligne” can be seen.

However, the circles do not announce future building projects, they are graphic interventions. They mark the areas where visitors to the 11th Swiss Sculpture Exhibition can watch a film by Mona Jas and Holger Friese on the open WLAN. The open WLAN in Biel is divided – on a technical level – into these different territorial zones. These zones are normally invisible, they consist of electromagnetic waves.

From the center of the transmitting/receiving antenna, they cast an invisible circle that becomes weaker with increasing distance and breaks off somewhere. The protagonists of the video film are, figuratively speaking, also centers of public communication.

We have located hairdressing salons outside the hotspots and have our hair cut on camera in these different salons on the edge of the restructured city center. We regard the selected hairdressers as urban experts whose wealth of experience we would like to share. We also refer to the general function of hairdressers as storytellers, possibly as the last representatives of a dying oral tradition. In our project “Les mèches en ligne”, we therefore focus specifically on salons with an established customer base. We therefore refer to the figure of the classic hairdresser as a listener and storyteller.

In conversation, we want to find out how the people of the respective Biel districts perceive the changes in the city and how their everyday lives are modified as a result. The film produced in this way can be viewed immediately after starting the web browser in one of the zones.

The film can be seen as an overlay on the login page. Only those who log in to one of the marked zones are able to view the film. In this way, the invisible wireless territories of the WLAN become an experience and the protagonists of the film occupy the virtual territories with stories from the streets around the center.

“Clash Hairstyle” with Michael Jalon, in ‘Coiffeur Tania’ with Tania Santulli, in ‘Coiffeur Sporting’ with Pino Margarito and in ‘Miss Ivoire’ with Raymonde Grah-Meusy.

 

Photos: Simon Lamuniére

 

 

DV-Video PAL / Html-Page, Javascript, Building site chalk
Production: Utopics / 11th Swiss Sculpture Exhibition, Biel / Bienne
Curator: Simon Lamunière

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