Momentarium

With the prevalence of social and mass media, would be consider our recorded memories and moments to be timeless or ephemeral? In Momentarium, Stéphane Masson asks if time can truly be captured and preserved by the use of technology.

This installation was created over the course of several months in an open call that saw public volunteers recorded as they smiled, laughed, grimaced, gesticulated and danced before our cameras. These briefly filmed sequences are projected onto 280 glass jars that are stacked across a wall, a monument of captured moments.

Locked in space but not frozen, the images appear simultaneously transient and immortalised. In observing the scale of the installation, one might say that it reflects a pervasive human desire to capture, store and share memories and occurrences even as we question how such images can be distinguished when viewed en masse.

Providing an opportunity for viewers to contribute to this wall of moments, two cameras are positioned on the sides of the wall of jars to capture via a live feed, visitors who may wish to be part of the artwork. But only for a moment!