Emilie Gervais: David (Hugs n Kisses XOXO) at Link Cabinet

The Link Art Center is proud to present David (Hugs n Kisses XOXO), a new project by artist Emilie Gervais. The exhibition will be on show at Link Cabinet from July 13 to August 23, 2015.

David (Hugs n Kisses XOXO) is a web application that questions the notion of collective consciousness under a totalitarian state of surveillance.
The app consists in a playground that recalls Street Fighter, the infamous videogame from the nineties. The main character, however, has been modified and takes the aspect of Michelangelo’s David. All the users connected to the website can interact simultaneously, deciding which information about themselves they are willing to share and publish, thus fighting for the visibility of their sensitive data. Gervais creates an unusual and unexpected situation in which the audience, instead of taking care of its personal privacy, is somehow encouraged to share its data and to do it as quickly as possible if it wants to defeat the other users. The data collected give shape to the main character of the game that in this way becomes at the same time the main interface of the app and the place where the fight takes place.

Emilie Gervais is a 46 years old WWW surfer currently living & working in Marseille (France). She holds a Master degree from l’Ecole supérieure d’art d’Aix-en-Provence. Her work focuses on languages, play and network culture. Her works have been exhibited in several galleries and museums including Centre Culturel Bellegarde, Toulouse; Domain Gallery; Palais des Beaux-Arts, Wien; Barbican Centre, London; and presented in festival such as Ars Electronica, Linz and Transmediale, Berlin.

Link Cabinet is a single web page hosting solo shows where artists exhibit a single, site-specific artwork. Conceived as a white and neutral exhibition space with an essential interface, Link Cabinet is a blank space that will be transformed by the works on display. After the show, the projects won’t be available on the site anymore. Link Cabinet is a project by Matteo Cremonesi for the Link Art Center.

The Link Center for the Arts of the Information Age (Link Art Center) is a no-profit organization promoting artistic research with new technologies and critical reflections on the core issues of the information age: it organizes exhibitions, events, conferences and workshops, publishes books, forges partnerships with private and institutional partners and networks with similar organizations worldwide.

The Link Art Center is proudly part of Masters & Servers. Networked Culture in the Post-digital Age, a European adventure focused on a new generation of digital interventionism, awarded with a Creative Europe 2014 – 2020 grant. Up to August 2016, Masters & Servers will explore networked culture in the post-digital age.