‘‘Le maître du mime Etienne Decroux’’

A text by viktoria hilsberg

Surrounded daily by memes and flooded with digital noise, Mical Noelson and Evelyn O have been collaborating together on new pieces since August 2023. The results are being presented in their virtual space Le maître du mime Etienne Decroux. Victoria Pluto offers her perspective.

A randomized stimulation of affects, echoing emotions encountered just today or in all the years spent navigating digital spaces. The works presented in Le maître du mime Etienne Decroux recall intricately designed websites, calculated UX, and the imagery of marketplaces. Every day, our thoughts, our identity are evolving, surrounded by digital noise. Adapting, we are seeking to comprehend and extend the possibilities we have. Located in two different parts of the world, Mical Noelson and Evelyn O started a digital partnership, sending messages back and forth, containing bits and pieces of visual material. They began with a large group of AI-generated images which were then wrapped around three-dimensional objects, combined with three-dimensional drawings. Shapes and color fields were cut out, pieced together, drawn upon, cut out again, gradually evolving into individual pieces. The resulting works we are seeing now are a walk through a library of forms, developed by constant, subtle alterations. In this artistic work, the human, the artists, and really, us, the users of this virtual world, are only in part their creators. Mical Noelson and Evelyn O actively participate in the visualization of our randomized momentary experiences. There is not a narrative to be searched for. It is our life story that is told by the works, which are fed by the titles given to them by the artist.

Brecht believed, in a time when radio was the high point of media evolution, that stylization and alienation of the individual in order to portray something to the world is ideal for sending a message. That the goal of an actor is to provoke external societal reflection and identification upon the spectator. An over-exemplification of character by the actor, including alienation from our individuality as actors, means to be recognizable and is therefore favorable. He said that regarding theater, it is adaptable to the digital extensions of ourselves. It does represent a sense of existential feeling in the digital age. To be recognized, we must be perceived. Building an adaptive character to our surroundings, an extension of ourselves. Over the long term, we learn to perceive ourselves as one with that digital character we developed. It is a matter of believable branding. Something with a market character. Something that is created. Something that is re-created within these works and in their space by Mical Noelson and Evelyn O. Everyone wants the resemblance, the recognition of forms. Becoming so much that really, it is becoming an array of colors and reproduced shapes, merging together with our daily explorative thoughts of the articles we’ve read and maybe an understanding of what artworks are supposed to be. Meanwhile, titles such as Ada Lovelace’s Abjection recall our mental maps of associations as well as hinting at the practice behind the works.

“You don’t have an identity given to you, you are confronted with a space you can fill.” — Mical Noelsen

Mical Noelson, with Bajan and British heritage, and Evelyn O, of Swedish and Japanese descent, both come from multinational backgrounds. While such backgrounds can initially present a sense of complex identity in childhood, they ultimately empower these artists, enabling a nuanced understanding of diverse concepts beyond immediate identification. New concepts, be it socially, be it in artistic practice, or in the reflection upon standards or traditions, can be individually reconsidered and developed. This also produces a sense of belonging, which is, however, a fleeting one.

Also in art, there is a demand for representation and recognition. While AI’s presence is increasingly felt across all media, resistance within the market persists. Meanwhile, an artist’s name and medium remain key in cultural and economic valuation, although human practice, though central, is no longer the sole force behind innovation. With centuries of history and a recurring visual or affectatious representation of our surroundings, painting is considered one of the most beloved media, partly due to its comprehensible authorship. Painting has always been there, and it was always more than oil on canvas: wax on wall, oil on metal, acrylic on paper, ink on body. It always adapted to contemporary developments and needs. It is also still to this day the most successful of all media in the contemporary art market. It defines what you will see most in exhibition spaces. However, by now, we spend more than one-third of our days in front of digital screens, be it for work, plain organization, or just for fun. And therefore, painting’s step into digital inspiration and visual adaptation in the last decades is a natural one. But again, it is a matter of representation of what you consider to be something to desire. To stylize an object that does not need gold framing, you develop a hint that develops value in and outside the digital world, although never having left it. That sense of irony in the agency is conveyed in the space they have built.

When unaccustomed to the blinding white light of gallery rooms, another process of alienation unfolds. An adaptation to new surroundings, shaping our words, our movements, our expressions. In a space where everything is constructed, every action is considered to have meaning. Le maître du mime Etienne Decroux plays with this, citing visual cues from movie scenes, now pop culture references for behavior in art spaces. It mirrors our learned gestures, reenacting them within a digital realm.

The virtual space sets the stage, where film stills solidify into a static performance, calling us to action each time we enter the room. Artists and the viewer are intentionally made to feel separate, present but far away. An estrangement that resonates within gallery spaces, but is now fed by another memory: a collective one born from our digital lives, fed through shared cultural codes. For Brecht, it was important to never completely merge into the scene. Both artists have evolved from a highly participatory visual culture in art. Le maître du mime Etienne Decroux represents their current collaborative state, a momentary sense of belonging, an executive function of identity. This room and the works within are fragments of what we have experienced and what is happening next in contemporary art. A glimpse into a future that yet resists definition. We cannot see what comes next. But we engage with the knowledge we have, the theories, the feelings, the needs that shape our days. There is humor in this space by Mical Noelson and Evelyn O, a playful irony, but also an honesty in how the artists reflect their view on the contemporary. The horizon shifts and the ceiling hovers as a simulation that mirrors our experiences. It is a constant cycle of creation and re-creation, echoing the digital world’s flow. There is no narrative to follow. Only fragments, glimpses of perception, reflecting the fluidity of identity and experience within a constructed virtual world, where collaboration is essential to succeed.

• viktoria hilsberg

Viktoria Hilsberg is an independent researcher based in Berlin, Germany. As an interdisciplinary scholar and project manager, she connects contemporary art and media theory discourse with technology. Her research focuses on blockchain and XR technologies, and their applications within the art market, digital culture, and market strategies. Find her on Instagram and Twitter: @vicpluto