Online projects

The Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain presents Night Vision 20/20, a work created by Sarah Sze—her first foray into augmented reality—and developed by the digital agency Cher Ami as an app. Produced as part of the Parisian exhibition Sarah Sze, Night into Day, this immersive tool plunges users, wherever they may be, into a nocturnal dream world. The visual elements, comprised of videos drawn from Sze’s installations, transform the users’ perception of reality through their smartphone screen. Night Vision 20/20 brings them into the artist’s universe and opens the door to a personal and playful exploration of her work. A sound piece created by Sze heightens this dreamlike wandering.

The Night Vision 20/20 app joins Sze’s two original Night into Day installations. It is downloadable for free from the Apple Store and Google Play.

In celebration of the exceptional event that is the presentation of Artavazd Pelechian’s new film Nature—his first in 27 years—the Fondation Cartier is spotlighting the filmmaker, whose work remains too little known by the general public, through an online project accessible to all on its website: Encounter with Artavazd Pelechian. The fruit of an ambitious research effort conducted in close collaboration with the artist, this unprecedented project explores the life and work of the rare, yet celebrated filmmaker, a “missing link in the true history of cinema”, in the words of Serge Daney.

From his birth in Armenia to the making of his new film, Nature, first shown in 2020, Encounter with Artavazd Pelechian looks back on the milestones of his career. Presenting excerpts from the ten films that now make up Pelechian’s filmography, this exploration is enhanced with rare documents, historical photos and a number of contributions by figures from the art and film worlds. It elucidates some of the mystery surrounding this distinctive filmmaker and his lyrical, timeless body of work.

Less known to the public eye than its neighbor the Amazon, the Paraguayan Gran Chaco forest has the highest deforestation rate in the world. Every day more than 1.000 hectares of dry forest are cut down for meat production. The indigenous communities who call it their home now live within close proximity of the small towns that have sprung up there. Men from these indigenous communities are generally employed as agricultural workers by large landowners.

These communities are home to outstanding artists, discovered by the anthropologists Verena and Ursula Regehr, who supported and promoted them with local exhibitions. Their drawings and sculptures bear witness to the deep bond they developedwith their rapidly disappearing environment, including plants and animals.

Even if their survival and culture are threatened, be it by the growing number of farms taking over the region, the increased cultivation of soy crops or, today, the Covid-19 pandemic, these artists keep on drawing. Their works denounce the destruction of their environment and take us on a fascinating journey through the emblematic landscapes of the Gran Chaco.