Soundcloud 🙂
Thank you for joining me, Max. Could you please tell me a bit about yourself?
Yeah, hi. I’m Max Bondu. I’ve been living here in Geneva for the past 15 years. I’m also part of a collective of a group that has co design and built our own space for walking and inhabitation near Geneva at the border in France, but at the bottom of the Jura. The place, the atelier is called Bermuda.
I’m working as an artist here. I’m interested in cloud and in data. So basically, my work focuses on stories and fact anecdotes and I will dig on facts and try to get a divergent angle of the situation.
What kind of artists?
Basically, yeah. I’m quite doing everything in installation and sculpture, but it’s also painting or conceptual art films. For example, here in the show, ‘Under the Radar’, I’m working on the film project. It’s a collaboration with two other artists, Devan Longlay and Felicia Goge.
We shoot images around the ring of the CERN. So that’s the collider. It’s really massive here, and it’s part of the territory, the complex territory of Geneva and France in the payjacks and yeah, with a drone, but at low altitude.
And we shot videos but stationary, so not mobile. So it’s not like a droney image. And we tried to get some things, we kind of anti the ghost.
Yeah
Cool.
Maybe also the unexpected movement or radiation, because we use many tools and also electromagnetic fields, so we listen to the interferences that could happen.
Just we were aware for an unexpected year.
Nice. So this ‘Under the Radar’ exhibition here in Geneva is part of as you know, it’s part of an international project with previous exhibitions in Medellin, Cúcuta and Nairobi. What drew you to join this exhibition? And is it your first exhibition with Matza?
Yeah, actually, no. I was invited three times already. I’m quite kind of lucky on that. So it’s my first time in this Edgelands collaboration. But I was part of the Envoy project in the Californian desert, also in Kerkennah Island in Tunisia. And I did also a tour in the Glacier of Aletsch in Switzerland. So yeah, it’s my fourth tour with Severin Guelpa and Anja.
Yeah. And it’s really about collective practices and how a group can develop things together.
And what does that mean to you as collective practices?
Yeah, it’s really important in my practice as well.
It’s always a moment to share perspective, to share knowledge, and it’s an opportunity to collaborate on projects, and I’m really happy to do that. It’s also in my personal practice. Individually, it’s something I’m quite looking for.
Nice. So a major theme in this exhibition is exploring security and feeling safe. What does security mean to you?
Yeah, I don’t really know what security means for me, but I’m actually questioning more of the radar as a tool, as a tool to observe, as a tool to try to know the complexity among and around us and try to be aware and focus.
For me, security means having a quite high level of consciousness about things that are around us also, like mean power, ideology and economic systems.
Many find art to be a great way to express themselves and even feel safe and find a sense of belonging. What role does art play for you with regards to safety, sense of belonging, any of the themes in this exhibition.
Art, for me, is just a way of living. So I have a practice. I’m living with a group of researchers, with a group of artists and scientists.
We kind of have a sort of community and with the balance of between private and common spaces. But, yeah, art for me is just a way of thinking, just things we can write, we can make videos, picture installations.
It’s just a way of expressing an idea and it’s a combination of every kind of gesture, you know, how do you position it yourself with tools and mediums.
Digitalization, as you know, is having a growing impact on all of our lives. What impact do you think that digitalization has specifically on any of the themes of this exhibition and art?
Yeah, digitalization is a complex attitude nowadays. The thing is, the interface between the user and the tool has begun to be thicker and thicker for the past 50 years.
So it could be a big word, but the idea is to try as citizens, to get the knowledge of the tools we have. So we have to keep up and not give up on the idea of knowing. Yeah. How things works, you know, how computers work, how the telephone works.
And that’s the only perspective we can have to get our hands dirty in things. We need to not lose the control of the digital world. That’s something I can fight for and I will fight for.
Everyone’s talking about AI at the moment. Do you think that it’s like a good thing for art? Do you think art can take something away from it?
Yeah, I think everything has, like it’s a great opportunity, but it’s also a great danger.
It’s a tool. It’s like a hammer can kill someone, but it also can build a house. So it’s the two sides of the coin, as Americans say. But the main thing is we have to have the knowledge. So it’s about open source. It’s about knowing how things work and yeah, great things can come to that, but also super dangerous situations. So we have to keep our eyes open for this.
You talked about your interest in cloud and data. What previous work have you done with that regard and would you like to share?
Yeah. For example, about cloud, we set up a research group, a platform of thinking and action with two other friends, the architect and engineer, Dr. Tiffan Abenya and Uri Vegman, also an architect. And the platform is called the Trian School Vision of Cloud. The platform is about inviting people for research and for projects, just to dig a bit on this concept of cloud.
When I say cloud, I mean like the philosophical one, systematic, informational, of course, technologic and social. But it’s about what the cloud is about today. And so we have residency, we have conferences about that and publications.
It’s a platform I’m doing on the side, but yeah.
Cool. And lastly, with this collective space being temporary, as an artist living in Geneva, what permanence would you like there to be after the exhibition?
What I understood for the place, it’s going to be an artist atelier and also a place for meetings and a common kitchen. So I mean, collective and common spaces are something we need for that. For sure Atelier, but also to share tools and common atelier also has to be open here, but yeah, it’s a great opportunity for the neighborhood here.
Cool.
Thanks.
Thank you. This is really cool.
Zara Tewolde-Berhan 