Pleasure
At a time when our lives are shaped by technology, artists are questioning the place of pleasure in our connected existence.
Between coded desires, commodified emotions, and reinvented sensory experiences, the works brought together here suggest alternative ways of feeling, relating, and reengaging with the senses.
This selection is the result of a collaboration between HACNUM and SALOON PARIS. Based on proposals from curators within the HACNUM network on the theme of “Pleasure,” the final selection was made by five members of SALOON PARIS: Isabelle Arvers, Klio Krajewska, Olivia Sappey, Tina Sauerlaender, and Valentina Peri.
The Authors of the Selection
HACNUM
HACNUM is an association dedicated to structuring, organizing, and developing the ecosystems of hybrid arts and digital cultures in France. It brings together more than a hundred key players in these sectors to advocate for their shared interests.
SALOON PARIS
SALOON PARIS is the Paris branch of SALOON, an international network of women in the art world: artists, curators, gallerists, writers, researchers, and heads of cultural institutions. Founded in 2017 by Anne Roquigny and Valentina Peri, SALOON PARIS aims to highlight the female art scene in Paris, encourage mutual support, and foster exchange, collaboration, and the development of new projects.
Commodification of Our Desires...
Two artistic proposals, two ways of exploring the gaps in our connected, quantified, and exposed lives.
These two works, in essence, problematize how our emotions and bodies circulate within representation systems saturated with norms—economic, aesthetic, and social.
Where control seeks to assert itself—through quantification, commodification, or surveillance—these works reintroduce ambiguity, sensitivity, and the immeasurable.
They invite us to rethink how we love, feel, look, and tell stories.
Technoromances and Digital Solitudes
The works of Valentina Peri, Ugo Arsac, and Dasha Ilina map the new regimes of intimacy in a world where connections are forged through interfaces, algorithms, and screens.
Through archives, testimonies, and critical speculations, Museum of Dating by Valentina Peri, Girlfriend Experience by Ugo Arsac, and the participatory workshop by Dasha Ilina examine how technology has reshaped—or is reshaping—our emotional relationships.
From the Minitel Rose to the Girlfriend Experience, and through social media, they reveal the tensions between closeness, commodification, and loneliness, highlighting the evolution of norms and representations in our relationships since the advent of technology.
Encoded Sensory Worlds
These three artistic propositions immerse us in worlds where sensation takes center stage—something to explore, activate, and transform.
Through interactive sculpture, vocal weaving, and virtual environments, they open up unique sensory experiences.
Here, pleasure becomes a score, a protocol, a wandering—a way of inhabiting the living.
The artists reconcile art, technology, and the body in a sensitive and critical approach.
An invitation to feel, explore, and reprogram our desires in the digital age.
Altered Pleasures
The work of Jeanne Susplugas explores the ambiguous relationship our societies have with altered states of consciousness, artificially induced emotions, and the party as a space of liberation or control.
Drawing from visual forms, she manipulates the codes of science, festive culture, and psychotropics to evoke pleasure under influence.
