When the World Was A Laugh
PROCESS
Laughter is a uniquely human and collective activity. What we find funny might vary by culture, but its contagious nature cannot be ignored. In When the World Was A Laugh, Anaïs Tondeur invited us to perceive in our own body the mechanics of laughter, its physiological components, its quality as a gesture, as well as its social significance.
Through an international Call for Laughs, she began documenting the sounds of laughter from across the world in an attempt to track down the origins of the most contagious of these laughs. This investigation were presented as an evolutive video of laughs, which kept growing as people contributed laughter to this work. Inspired by the role of laughter in myths regarding the origin of the universe, this work invited us to share a laugh during a time when a global pandemic had disrupted our ways of connecting and being together.
This exhibit was created with the support of The French Institute / IFI (Institut français India).
About the Contributors
Merging natural sciences and anthropology, myth-making, and new media, visual artist Anaïs Tondeur’s practice is anchored in ecology thought. Creating installations, photographs, or videos, she seeks a new aesthetic, in the sense of a renewal of our modes of perception, to find other conditions of being in the world.
She has been an artist-in-residence in several art centers and scientific laboratories, which include LeCentQuatre-Grand Paris Express (2018-19), Artlink (Ireland, 2019), the Museum of Arts et Métiers (Paris, 2018-17), and the National Centre for Space Studies (CNES, Paris, 2016).
She has presented and exhibited her work in international institutions such as the Center Pompidou (Paris), La Gaîté Lyrique (Paris), Serpentines Galleries (London), Bozar (Brussels), and Biennale Di Venezia, (Lieux Infinis).
Floriane Pochon thinks and writes with sound. She creates sound forms, hybrid forms, but also forms of transmission in active collaboration with French and international artists.
Since 2013, she breathes for Phaune Radio, a strange wild creature that emits strange sounds on the web 24 hours a day. Since 2014, she has been crossing sound and literary writings with Alain Damasio for the sound arts studio Tarabust. Since 2016, she has also developed virtual reality audio sites between Montreal and France, with Eric Chahi, for Paper Beast.
