Chronicles of the Dark Sun

In a dystopian future, humans have had to block out the sun in order to survive on Earth. Drought is extreme and the planet is gradually turning into a scorching desert where the survivors, installed in the basements of the great observatories, live in perpetual darkness. To compensate for the image of a sun they can no longer see, they instruct an artificial intelligence program to reconstruct it. The AI is supervised by a young woman whose mental images are particularly vivid.

Drawing on the photo-novel structure of Chris Marker's film La Jetée (1962), Chronicles of the Dark Sun work on a science fiction narrative in which, as in Marker's film, an algorithm is tasked with reconstructing the past using an image from the protagonist's childhood. By recycling photographs from personal albums, advertising images and scientific snapshots, all of which are reprocessed by an AI, the film examines our relationship with technology in a disturbing and ironic way. This work is an uncanny fable that makes us think about the deformation of reality in AI as well as the unsustainability of our way of inhabiting the planet.

Credits

Production and editing: Gwenola Wagon
Concept: Pierre Cassou-Noguès and Gwenola Wagon
Text: Pierre Cassou-Noguès
Graphics and credits: Nuno da Luz
Assistant editor: Cécile Bicler
Original music, sound design and mixing: Kerwin Rolland
Guitar performance: Marie Solies
Adaptation of the Lugubre Gondole by Franz Liszt
With: Cécile Bicler, Pierre Cassou-Noguès, Gurwann Tran Van Gie
Photographs of memories: Bernard Wagon
Images transformed with Gen2.
Produced with the support of Hangar Y, in partnership with l’Observatoire de Paris-PSL, for the " Prendre le Soleil" exhibition (December 2023 - April 2024)
Acknowledgements Aurélie Baron, Luce Lebart and Marta Ponsa, Vincent Coudé du Foresto, Miguel Montargès and Observatoire de Paris-PSL

Diffusion

Exhibition Le monde à travers l’IA au São Paulo, Brazil, 24th june - 29th november 2026
Exhibition Le monde à travers l’IA Schirn Kunsthalle, Francfort, Germany, 11 june - 20 september 2026
Exhibition Genossin Sonne (Comrade Sun), HMKV, Dortmunt, Germany, 2026
Exhibition Le monde à travers l’IA au SESC Campinas, Brazil, 2025
Exhibition Sous le soleil exactement, Le Bahut, Semur-en-Auxois, France, 2025
Exhibition Fixing Futures, Transformation and future, Artistic direction: Laura Domes, Ina Neddermeyer Museum Giersch of the Goethe University (MGGU), Frankfurt, 5 avril 2025 - 31 aout 2025
Exhibition Solar biennale #2, Mudac, Musée cantonal de design et d’arts appliqués contemporains Lausanne, 21 mars au 21 septembre 2025
Diffusion 2025 Chiayi International Art Documentary Festival Chiayi City 14 mars - 30 mars 2025
Projection, Rencontres internationales Paris / Berlin, séance Le soleil noir, Cinéma Pathé Les Fauvettes, Paris, 23 november 2024
Projection, Rencontres internationales Paris / Berlin, Séance d'ouverture, Auditorium Forum des images, Paris, 18 november 2024
Projection, Tous les détails du monde, Colloque international La Fabrique du détail, La Fémis, Paris, 8 november 2024
Projection Speculative Archives – AI films, Harvard University, US, Carpenter Center, Curator Antonio Somaini, Boston, 30 october 2024
Diffusion 29th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival, 27 october, 1 november 2024
Exhibition Paysages Ultimes – 2024, IMAGES/VENTENAC, Curator Rahmouna Boutayeb et François Moulignat, Ventenac, 2024
Exhibition Genossin Sonne Comrade Sun, Kunsthalle Wien and Wiener Festwochen | Freie Republik Wien, In cooperation with the Klima Biennale Wien, Kunsthalle Wien, Wien, 16 may - 1 september 2024
Projection, conversation avec David Zerbib Hable con ella — Dialogues avec l’IA, Galerie Analix Forever, Genève, 26 june 2024
Exhibition Hable con ella — Dialogues avec l’IA, Curator Marta Ponsa, Galerie Analix Forever, Genève, may-june2024
Exhibition Prendre le Soleil (décembre 2023 - avril 2024) Hangar Y, en partenariat avec l’Observatoire de Paris-PSL