When algorithms and artificial intelligence start replacing the camera and the eye, it will be time to rethink the role of the images that have so far helped to forge our sensibilities. Produced in 2021, during a residency as part of the Planches Contact festival in Deauville, Déjà-Vu consists of applying generative neural network technology to a dataset composed of works from the collections of the Franciscans in Deauville. An algorithm then determines the most repeated patterns in the collections and becomes capable of creating new works. This process questions the notions of “artist,” “conservator,” and “curator.” But the most interesting thing about it are the errors of the system itself: the failed tests, the intermediate steps and the technological unconscious that emerges from accidents. We find the old desacralizing paradigm of creativity and art: the meaning of an image does not lie in its origin but in its destination. Thus, to a certain extent, everything is “déjà-vu,” already seen.

Joan Fontcuberta and Pilar Rosado