full interview_elias crespin_1.mp4
Speaker 1 [00:00:00] Our show is art and science, and you immediately started talking about the science present in what you do. So maybe just come with us.
Elias Crespin [00:00:10] Well, since a young age, I've been interested in thinking about what movement is and how it is a manifestation of time. And so if an object moves from one point to another, how does it move? Does it pass through an infinite number of intermediate positions? Or does it pass through a finite number of jumps, little jumps from point one to point two? That's something I don't think we have a clear answer. There's people that say yes about continuous movement or a continuum in space, and there's people that say no, it's a quantic or discreet. Jump at some point you cannot subdivide time And it's not clear. It seems one way, but it might be another way. So the way I try to express these questions or these search is through the artwork, the moving artworks that I do.
Speaker 1 [00:01:40] Are you conscious of the scientific questions behind your work? Is that something that you think about? Is your training then such that you have a scientific
Elias Crespin [00:01:48] I'm conscious, but I'm not. Into answering them, or, you know, I like.
Speaker 1 [00:01:58] I like... We don't use my question.
Elias Crespin [00:02:03] Okay, I try to, I do think of metaphors of the real world with respect to my work while I'm conceiving them or working on them. Like for example, it's interesting how planets and stars interact with each other through gravity that we've been told about. I haven't experimented myself, but we read and find out the explanations that astronomers give us. And it's interesting, in my work I have distant elements that are moving one with respect to others and I like to think it as a metaphor of the universe, of moving. Stars or stellar objects in relation to one another, being far apart. So there is a relative movement, also the relativity of speed and movement. I like to think of that and in my work you see it a lot and you can focus on one point or one element and see how the others are moving around respect to it, although you are an outside observer. For this system. I think I've almost thought, I haven't done it, that to do some experiments on virtual reality that would allow me, although I like the fact that I bring the computer algorithms out of the computer realm into the physical reality. So, it's kind of a real virtual reality. That I materialize, but through virtual reality I can put the observer inside the system and have a different perspective, be an observer in the system, and have the same dance, the same choreography. When perceived from within, you have a different perception. It is the same dance. So I like also psychologically to think and be aware of the importance of the different points of view and to understand that they exist and they're acceptable, the different point of view.
Speaker 1 [00:04:56] Can we talk about the computer and your work? Who's the creator?
Elias Crespin [00:05:02] In my work, so far, it's me, but I haven't had the courage to release some of the control the creator has over the finished work and give it to the computer, which is, it is already in the software. It's activatable already in my, the control software I use for my work. But I haven't given it all the potential it has yet. Because I want to do it in a controlled way and there are some constraints there that I have to better work and make it clear it's my conception. Because, of course, it's always, in a way, gonna be my conception since I defined it. If I define randomness or generativity for a movement, it's my conception at the base, but full randomness, or full generativity, would create a chaos that has a lack of coherence that I want my work always to have. So I'm working on, yeah, giving it more self-freedom or free will but in a predefined or pre-specified way. That's the way I would like them to be.
Speaker 1 [00:06:40] Your work obviously involves present-day, cutting-edge technology. Where do you see that? Where do see yourself in the history of art, thinking about how technology influences art over the centuries?
Elias Crespin [00:06:57] Well, actually, it's very difficult. It has to do with the concept of relativity and point of view of the observer. I'm within the system. I'm with in my dynamic. So it's not easy for me to look out and define where am I in the art history line. But I can tell you that when I started I, that was 18 years ago, I looked up a lot and I found very, very few examples of computer and technology being applied to physical movement in art. There were, you know, on the screen, there were many designers or artists as well doing things. I found some... Nice examples in the Artbots art festival that was in the 2003-2004 time frame. And professor in New York. I don't get the name right now. Rosen, thank you very much.
Speaker 1 [00:08:30] He's in our front of the cell. Ah, is he? Yeah, he just has it on one side.
Elias Crespin [00:08:34] I love his wooden mirror, and it was one of the only cases I saw of multi-motor, because I had developed my multi-moder technical capacity, but I didn't want to use it if it wasn't going to be something new. So I saw his mirror, it's mind-blowing, and I loved it. And I saw one other example, but there were no... Articulated, multi-axis artworks like this. So I said, well, it's worth going for it. So I can tell you that. I don't know where art historians will put me.
Speaker 1 [00:09:21] Just a couple more questions. Tell us about the materials. Do the different materials speak to you in terms of metal or whatever you're making?
Elias Crespin [00:09:30] Um, yeah, they, they...
Speaker 1 [00:09:32] So just if you take the materials I used to start.
Elias Crespin [00:09:37] The materials I use, they're materials that I'm interested in because of their visual or, yeah, mainly their visual properties, their weight also. Weight-wise, aluminum is one of my favorite, but I like the personality difference that work acquires. Just by changing the material. If it's a brass or copper or aluminum, you put the three together and there is a difference. It's very subtle and I like raw metal materials. But I've done also some works with plexiglass and colored plexi glass. And the fact that they can superpose or or not superposed thanks to movement makes the density of color being able to be controlled. And that's also something I enjoy.
Speaker 1 [00:10:49] And Chris, do you have anything? OK, this is great. I'm going to have to catch up with him. I can talk to you for a lot of time. Sure. But let me know. And more and more.
Elias Crespin [00:10:55] Sure, and more authentically than for the film, right? For the film, right?
Speaker 1 [00:11:01] This has been wonderful. One more question. What is the tomorrow, Tuesday, or Thursday? We're going to go to see Longue Du Medi. What for you was the significance of the Louver choosing you to place whatever you're
Elias Crespin [00:11:18] where it's a very rare request worldwide. So I felt very fortunate and very.
Speaker 1 [00:11:28] To be asked to show.
Elias Crespin [00:11:31] To be asked to show something in the Louver is a mind-blowing request. It's very unique worldwide, or in the art world or not in the artwork world. There are very few artists that are asked to have been in history, very few artist to ask to conceive work to be part of the museum. The Louver Museum. There is a tradition of these requests and there have been since the beginning of the museum as a museum and the first one was to Delacroix. There's a fresco of Delacroy in the Apollo Gallery and that was a request for a decor for the museum. So, in that tradition, recently, let's say in... Contemporary art times. There have been very few. Maybe we can count them with a hand. And the most recent being Sy Tombley and Anselm Kiefer, Joseph Cossut or Jean-Michel Otoniel. And I've been the last one now in 2021. So...
Speaker 1 [00:13:02] It's striking to have something so modern in that context of that particular music.
Elias Crespin [00:13:09] It is, and it was the idea of the director of the museum when he saw my work at the Grand Palais, and he thought, I want that for my museum. It's perfect for this tradition of decor requests. It was, so he had the vision. I do my works, and he invited me to imagine, conceive a work of mine for this. And the first request was, OK, walk around and find out where it could be. Let us know what you think. So that was a challenge in this huge museum, finding a good spot. And when I saw the spot where I installed the Andoumidi, I was thrilled. I had a vertigo. You say no. Vertigo? Like existential vertigo there. Am I really gonna... Be allowed to install a work here forever? That's, you know, I try not to think very much about it because it's overwhelming. I just have to keep going and working on my relative movement.
