Colour video single channel, mute. 3’55”. Video installation.

As part of a broader research on extinction -Jaguars Worlds-, I have started to explore the lifestyles of jaguars at the Vincennes Zoo (Paris, France). Where, in the past, human zoos presented indigenous communities, today we still find specimens (or inhabitants) whose indigenous status is debated in relation to the colonial history of South American territories (Jaguars are indigenous to French Guiana, a French colonial territory). Brought to the theatrical construction where they’re supposed to represent the jaguars of french guiana. While being born in captivity in Warsaw and Krakow, Poland, this beings are in the dispossession to manifest ate their own expressiveness in their captive-enslaved state.

The jaguars kept there are completely deprived of their camouflage ability, as the museum’s “living collection” exhibition setup demands extreme visibility for its visitors. The large glass panes, the only part of their enclosure that is effectively soundproofed, force the jaguars to seek refuge from the overwhelming noise near the glass (hypothesis along with Dauphiné-Morer.

Spotless is a videoinstallation that seeks, in a diplomatic and essentially symbolic manner, to restore the jaguars’ capacity for camouflage and evade from human gaze by eliminating the noise of visitors and passers-by from the zoo. The configuration of their enclosure also reflects the imaginary of the world of meaning we attribute to jaguar.

This research is being developed in collaboration with ethologist Anne-Lise Dauphiné-Morer