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The first experiments with light were conducted in 1959: We place the light in small boxes which reproduced, multiplied and combined with the screens made of Plexiglas slates, prisms, squares and circle shapes, using a scale of 14 colours. Like in other experiments it is not about creating luminous paintings .The light is but a way to manifest some of my concerns, such apprehending the variation of the potential induced and to manifest it in one visual field.

Many experiments were made from the handling of material and the differentiation of the issues. I also wanted to work simultaneously using reflections; some Plexiglas slates 45%, fixed or mobile elements placed on each side. So the reflected shapes inter penetrated in their transparency and seems to float in space. In other experiments of the same series, some Plexiglas slates were placed in depth so the lateral pictures lightening up alternatively, and created some visual sequences of 8 situations. Many topics can be subjected to all those experimental boxes, combining and alternating them in different way
Some other experiments with the light are drawn from the mobile elements originally destined inside boxes. On the base of reflections of light on a background through small Plexiglas or metal slates, a series of experiments combined the place of the source of light, the incidence of the suspended elements, the shapes of the background. This series led me to realize in 1962 an ensemble destined to a white room in darkness.

The ensemble was laid out in the middle of a room; the suspended elements received 4 rays of light and distributed their reflections horizontally, vertically and obliquely on the wall, the ceiling and the floor.
In 1962, I did other experiments using a ray of artificial light; some of them consist to project a ray of light on a cylinder which reflected the ray and distorted it on a wooden white circle which was the bottom of the cylinder. The ray was then intercepted by mobile elements which fractioned it by different manners. The visual results on the white circle were a constant and imperceptible game of shadows and lights, which were previously set. The same principal of shaved light was used to other experiments.

At the same time I realized other experiments to visualize rays of light in the space. First I tried to suspend, inside those small transparent Plexiglas’s boxes, some particles with air; to be able to penetrate those boxes with ray in movement, but I finally used some water in small aquariums. The water coloured with fluorescent aniline, made the ray of light coming through, perfectly visible. From these experiments, I conceived a smoker’s room which walls pierced with small holes, made spout out the moving luminous rays, so the air from the room reduced from the smoke permitted the visualisation of all the rays penetrating in all directions.

To surprise the viewer, to place him in the centre of a phenomenon, to embody him with visual situation, some experiments were realized in the first labyrinth our group presented at the Biennale of Paris in 1963.In this labyrinth, 3 of my proposal linked the light to reflective elements to give shape to 3 cells the viewer was invited to cross. Those experiments excluded the possibilities to apprehend the phenomenon with one look, like in the situation where traditional paintings hanged to a wall or sculpture on a stand where the viewer is turning around. On the contrary, they plunge him in a visual situation, while soliciting all around, so the image perceived in his passage is the result of his immobility in this space, the movement is having and the images which are successively produced etc…

In a similar way, but with more simple themes, I made in 1968, 2 other cells: one was covered of luminous and parallel ray of lights 30 cm away with constant vibration, and another with curved walls sweeping over all their length with vertical lights which were moving left and right with irregular spaces and different speed of light.

Pulsating light

An element realized in 1964, is the origin of another series of experiments.
It’s a polished aluminium disc 60 cm of diameter which can turn very fast on a slightly deviant axis on which is projected a ray of light. This produces 2 phenomena. First the images are reflected on a mirror slate, in a constant jerked movement, including the lamp of a projector, drawing a luminous circle of light in the reflections. Second, the light is projected by the slate, quickly and alternatively illuminating the objects, which produces a continuous vibration caused by the rapid displacement of light and shadow.

With the first formula, I realized a series of combination with the light fixed and fractioned by a circle or a cylinder with holes turning quickly in front or around it (pulsating light principal), which lighted up some white elements the viewer activates. If the cylinder turned quickly around the light, its fractioned in 2 colours (green and violet).The white elements, put in movement by the viewer and rapidly agitated, decomposed the light and made the same element green and red appear. The ensembles of those experiments were exposed in 1966.

Projections

Following the same principal, I achieved with the help of magnifying glass, to project the lamp itself in vibration to the screen. Other experiments were realized ;among them: the projection of a ray of light through many little squares, set on a spring with an engine, set in vibration, the reflection of the light on each little squares; then projected on a screen, it produces circles which became deformed as the vibration slows down, until becoming a luminous point of light.

Light

Those experiments with the light and the movement are linked to the principal of moving away from a fix, stable and definite work. The viewer is surrounded with the development of a multitude of changes. The uniform support of the element or the forms, accentuates without distraction, the instability mode in evidence, so the viewer perceives a part of the changes which is enough to apprehend the total meaning of the experience.
At this time, I thought my intervention was limited to confront some elements and once the link was established the visual outcome was the consequences.

I thought this was obvious for the viewer and he didn’t have to look for emotional motivations or aesthetic or others. It would have drawn me to choose this or that image.

In the traditional art work, everything is fixed by sign and keys one has to know to first be able to enjoy it. Facing this situation we thought, the presentation of experiments with multiple possibilities of change, from which the images were the results of the simple set up of elements more or less complex and not from an experimented hand, and where the artist represented a way limited but effective; starting or continuing the demolition of the traditional notions of Art and all its representation and appreciation.