Opening : EMI, Ethel Lilienfeld

© Ethel Lilienfeld, poster from EMI, 2023, Production Le Fresnoy - Studio national des arts contemporains

Following her exhibition at the Museum, Ethel Lilienfeld will unveil EMI, a hybrid project combining video (produced by Le Fresnoy - Studio national des arts contemporains) and digital screens, in the Botanique gallery. 

Synopsis:

EMI is an optimal performance tool. Her incredible productivity does not seem to be limited by basic human needs.

EMI is a virtual influencer.

EMI eats, EMI secretes, EMI generates. 

Context:

In recent years, a new type of influencer has been gaining ground: the virtual influencer. Sleek and handsome, these avatars created from scratch each have a story to tell, sharing their tastes, passions and vision with their community through a transmedia narrative. They promise to stay eternally young and fashionable, and never have any reputation problems. And since they’re also available at all times, who better to thrive in the new expanding virtual market than them?

​The project:

Embodying the concept of beauty and perfection, EMI is an adored virtual influencer until the day doubt creeps in. 

What if the trend was to look less and less like a human being?

CGI, AI image generators, a program created to automate video processing, but also traditional techniques such as live shooting or FX make-up, EMI explores different methods in an atmosphere of viral vlogs and colorful selfies.

EMI is a hybrid project that includes a short film and a web page.

https://emi.nevergone.cloud/

The emi.nevergone.cloud webpage is an outgrowth of the EMI film, extending the narrative into another space and time. People can own a part of the influencer's physical body, thereby becoming the guardian of one of her organs. Each organ comes with a short description that follows the codes of an autopsy. 

Behind its seductive form, the EMI project explores the increasing capitalization of the body, online, inviting us somewhere on the edge of the beautiful and the repulsive, the real and the fictitious, the living and the dead.