Transmutations by Nicolas Christol

Artist list

Nicolas Christol

Viewing capitalism as a regime of distorted alchemical transmutation that virtualizes bodies and converts nothingness into value, black powder represents the prior destruction necessary for social filtration — eugenic, racist, sexist, classist, speciesist. A key component of colonial conquest, war, and mining extraction, it atomizes communities and resources, laying the groundwork for capitalist accumulation. It is also the thermo-chemical agent of dispersal and destruction of the social body during popular struggles.

It illustrates what Achille Mbembe calls necropolitics: a techno-power that, beyond regulating life (Foucauldian biopolitics), organizes exposure to death. The staggering expansion of anti-riot violence (37 eyes blinded and 4 hands torn off during the Yellow Vests protests), the justification of the genocide of Palestinians, or calls to “accept losing one’s children” in a generalized war are recent examples.

Here, black powder made it possible to explode silver cylinders, materializing this social violence, inherited from colonial violence, symbolized by the small gold elements. These ruptures also recall the countless struggles that have overturned seemingly unshakeable regimes of power, and raise the question of the necessity of self-defence in the face of state violence.

Opening: Saturday 6 December from 16 to 18 h.

In partnership with Espace Borax.