Fragmentin is an artist collective based in Lausanne, Switzerland, founded in 2014 and today run by three ECAL (Ecole Cantonale d’art de Lausanne) alumni: Laura Perrenoud (*1991, Lausanne), David Colombini (*1989, Lausanne) and Marc Dubois (*1985, Basel).
At the crossroads of art and engineering, Fragmentin’s work questions the impact of the digital on everyday life by investigating these technologies disposition toward control and opacity. Influenced by the likes of Alain Damasio, Eric Sadin and James Bridle, Fragmentin’s installations posit chance, randomness and the unexpected as remedies to control.
Through installation, interaction and performance, the studio’s artwork demystifies complex systems and reveal the tension between technology and climate change: a machine engraves a digital message on a small piece of wood, attaches it to a helium-filled balloon, before setting it afloat toward an unknown journey (Attachment, 2016). Participants are driven to act-out a dystopic choreography in an experience which questions virtual reality as medium (2199, 2016). A web-app connected to a meteorological sculpture uses pollution levels to glitch selfies; sunlight intensity to destroy data and the rhythm of the rain to broadcast matching music (The Weather Followers, 2017). An atrium creates disturbing patterns amongst randomness, illustrating notorious geoengineered weather events recounted on a seperate device (Displuvium, 2019). A smartphone exposed to extreme temperatures reflects on its own inadequacies, in an environment marked by catastrophic climate change (Your phone needs to cool down, 2019).
Fragmentin’s work has been exhibited in Switzerland – along others – at Kunsthalle Zurich, the NOV gallery (Geneva), The Mapping Festival (Geneva, CH), the Locarno film Festival (Locarno, CH), the Cabaret Voltaire , Artlab EPFL (Lausanne, CH), La Becque (La Tour-de-Peilz, CH) and the Haus der elektronischen Künste HeK (Basel, CH). The trio’s installations have also travelled to the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Art and Space, The Mirage Festival (Lyon, FR), Festival du Nouveau Cinéma (Montreal, CA), Rokolectiv Festival (Bucarest, RO), The Cello Factory Gallery (London) and The ZKM (Karlsruhe, DE). In addition to galleries, museums and festivals, Fragmentin strive to display their work in public and unusual spaces such as mountaintops and gardens.
In 2015, Fragmentin spent three months in residence at CERN as part of the COLLIDE (Arts at CERN) program. This experience has allowed them to lay the groundwork for projects intersecting science, art and technology, in collaboration with physicists operating from the Geneva campus.
In June 2018, Fragmentin was awarded a Pax Art Award during a ceremony held at HeK during Art Basel. This prize is given to outstanding Swiss artists whose artworks showcase or discuss digital technologies. The Pax Art Foundation acquired Fragmentin’s piece “The Weather Followers”.
In February 2019, Fragmentin inaugurated his first solo exhibition at the HeK by participating in the exhibition Schweizer Medienkunst with! Mediengruppe Bitnik and Lauren Huret.
Following a competition organized by Pro Helvetia, Fragmentin’s artistic proposal was chosen to represent Switzerland at the 14th edition of the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Art and Space. Exhibited in Prague from June 6 to 16, 2019,“Artificial Arcadia: measured and adjustable(?) landscapes”, developed in collaboration with Kosmos architects, focuses on hybrid transitions between natural, technical and digital landscapes of Switzerland.
On 21 September 2019, Fragmentin was awarded the Prix du Rayonnement de la Fondation Vaudoise pour la Culture. This award distinguishes a personality of the canton de Vaud whose reputation goes beyond the borders of the canton of Vaud and Switzerland.
Since 2018, Fragmentin has been invited to hold several workshops such as: “Reintroducing Randomness: Artistic & Technological Urban Interventions” at the Musée d’Art Digital, Zurich (MuDA) or “BYOP” at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (ZHdK).
The trio is also regularly invited to give talks or lectures at universities or institutions such as ECAL Lausanne, HEAD Geneva, HeK Basel or the KIKK festival (BE).
In summer 2020, Fragmentin is invited to participate to Art Safiental, a land art and environmental art biennale. The group will design a sculpture that responds to the topic: Analogue / Digital.
