ESPACES AVEUGLES

Charles Billot

ESPACES AVEUGLES is a presentation of New York-based filmmaker and visual artist Charles Billot’s distorted analog films.

A series of loose photographs viewed over a light box, the book is designed to give readers a unique narrative every time they interact with it. There is no binding between pages, no introduction, no conclusion, and no caption information accompanying the images. Viewers choose their own path through the photographs, weaving them together without guidance or imposition, and as a result, draw their own conclusions about the work, and about their experience in relation to it.

Charles processes his film in complete darkness before exposing it to light. The edition, both a book and a work of art in itself, is a reflection of the artistic process behind the images it brings together. 

THE DESIGN PROCESS :

This project sparked of the collaboration between Charles Billot and art director Nour Sabbagh Chahal. A conversation about Charles's approach and work around light and experience brought Nour Sabbagh Chahal to propose a radical design for the layout. She mirrored Charles' process by creating a light box inside the book, and mirrored Charle's approach by breaking the boundaries of a traditional artwork that people appreciate with distance.

The project was thoroughly thought from the viewers point of view, a human centric design thinking let's say, usually applied to technologies. Nour's idea was to create an art book about Charles' work that would be a physical object, an artwork that people can embrace, interact with, make their own.

The layout was designed around these elements. No binding meant allowing the viewers to be decision-makers. They would experience the book as they want. Inserting a sole info page in the middle of the artwork allowed the viewers to appreciate the book endlessly and in as many ways as they choose. Nour finally recommended to print the artwork on translucent paper giving the viewers a total freedom to look at one image or layering the images to create one of their own.

The design prupose was to highlight Charles' work and process by giving the viewers the ability to understand the process by experiencing it themselves.  

Special thanks to Nathaniel Wojtalic, who worked with Storm Editions to design and manufacture the light boxes.

17 copies numbered and signed by Charles Billot.

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Espaces Aveugles is part of the library of the Princeton University and the Franklin Furnace Library

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DIMENSIONS : 2’⅜” x 10’⅜” x 10’⅜” inches

COPIES : 17

IMPRESSION : Inkjet on velum paper

Lightbox with 9 volt battery, 2 thin trays and a sleeve. (Plexiglas)

Each page is printed by the artist

Each box is assembled by Nathaniel Wojtalic.

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Price on demand: hello@stormeditions.com.