The Owl in Daylight, 2020

Entirely conceived in high-end Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI), The Owl in Daylight, 2020, is a new work in motion by Philippe Parreno. In constant evolution, the work is composed of 64 visual sequences controlled and juxtaposed by an Artificial Intelligence.

This moving tableau depicts a landscape bordered by a body of water. If at first glance the image seems static, subtle changes of light, temporality, and atmospheric conditions appear little by little: sometimes a city emerges in the distance before mysteriously disappearing in the following sequence, a row of lampposts extending across the water perhaps evoke the remains of an urban civilization. The visual and sound sequences are determined by the Artificial Intelligence. When transitioning between two sequences, the image of The Owl in Daylight sometimes blinks, flickers, as if the entity controlling it was hesitating.