Gilles Conan

15 signs with a diameter of 1 meter – total diameter of 7 meters – scaffolding / LEDs – dimmers – aluminum – plexiglass – wiring – semi-random program

Visibility: Malo jetty – outlet channel dike – Allies dike – Malo beach

Hypnotic and lunar, built of light and shadow, rollin‘ only lights up when you turn it off.

Created in 2010 on the façade of a hydroelectric plant in Toulouse, the artwork was reactivated in Amiens in 2013 and in 2019 on the building of the Urban Community of Dunkirk during the first edition of the Art and Industry triennial.

Similar to a clock without hands during the day, rollin’ initiates its energetic luminescent rounds only at nightfall. The artwork then transposes the animated wheel of digital (indicating latency or ongoing task) and its rotating lights evoke cycles of production and consumption, creation and destruction, appearance and disappearance. It thus reflects the transitions from one world to another.

The average speed of its recursive trances is correlated, with each new installation of the artwork, to the rate of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere (here, an increase of +10% compared to its creation date in 2010). These successive revolutions alternate at random cadences, constantly changing at the limit of perception, and are only made apparent through this reinterpreted kinetism, associated with a decrease in urban lighting in the area.

The artwork-signal thus articulates an invisible dynamic through subtraction. This luminous and energetic overcompensation will materialize for this edition by the extinction (or graduation to 25% intensity) of over 1500 public lighting points in collaboration with the City and the Grand Port Maritime of Dunkirk.

Located on the site of the Nicodeme company, rollin’ will be part of the industrial landscape of the port dedicated to flows and production. It will be oriented towards the vast space devoted to leisure and relaxation that stretches out on Malo-les-Bains beach. This choice aims to make it paradoxically visible through optical impregnation, in a miniaturized and condensed position, precarious in the face of the monumental. A retinal trap with muted ostentation, it will activate quietly and mark an elastic time; the one that inevitably brings us closer to the debacle or the rebound.

Partnerships: Nicodeme, EDF Gravelines, Calser, Entrepose, GPMD, ESA, Ville de Dunkerque, Qualicorde, Salti

Photo: Rafik Kerkouche