BIOGRAPHY​

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Szajner, born, in a cave under the name of Wolf, a borrowed identity towards the end of a war...​

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Autodidact, fascinated by the early automatons, theatrical machinery, magic lanterns, fairway creations, great spectacles which form the emergence of his taste for fleeting images : apparitions, disappearances, mysteries…

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1969 - abstraction from chemistry :
"temptation of alchemy" ; pigments mixed with unstable spirits, solutions, crystals [resorcinol, acetanilide] liquified by heat, to create volatile paintings in light projected directly on the architecture.
Performances in the Paris Planetarium- Paris
" Bespiel ", creation for the Electronic Arts Festival in Rennes - France​

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1980 - abstraction from physics :
creation of an instrument which brings forth music from light. Sans canvas, the walls, dematerialised, become waves.
" Brute Reason ", creation for the Lyrical theatre of London
" The hunting of the Snark ", creation for the Printemps de Bourges

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1990 - searching for artificial life :
creation of computer-operated contemporary automatons in an obsessional quest for the interaction of false and living.
" spirit of the revolution ", creation in the Paris Tuileries Gardens for the Bicentennial Mission…

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2000 - painting with obscurity :
creation of an opera : complex composition of machinery, text, dance, video, projected images on virtual screens.
" the star of the unborn" - National Stage, Valenciennes
" Commemoration of the  liberation of the concentration camps " - Paris

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2003 - treating illusions :
solitary labour, towards installation-type works combining digital memory, stepping motors, electroluminescence, electro-mechanics, optical illusions, video, paper, writing, Chinese shadows…
" no longer seeking to be seen, but to gently fade away "

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2007 : abstraction from " phenomenal " technology in the service of obscurity.
Crossing the threshold of the cavern, exposing oneself, after an infinite delay…
" one second from absurdity ", first exhibition in a contemporary art gallery...

Josef Veil

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