(potential project, TBA)
“Ceci n’est
pas un prix” is an interactive installation that transforms the
familiar logic of a prize wheel into a system where ownership is
replaced by representation. While the wheel displays desirable consumer
products—such as a PlayStation 5, Apple Watch Ultra, or Amazon Alexa—participants
never receive the physical object. Instead, after spinning the wheel, they
activate a public AR filter that temporarily places the selected virtual
object in their hands, visible live on a television screen. The prize becomes a simulated possession, replacing material ownership with temporary access
and visual proof.
The project
draws on René Magritte’s“Ceci n’est pas…” and Jean
Baudrillard’s theory of the simulacrum, examining how representation
gradually replaces the object itself. In this economy, the participant does
not receive a product but generates visibility, engagement, and circulation:
by activating the AR experience, they simultaneously become both the winner and
the distributor of the artwork within the logic of digital platforms.
This
conceptual framework extends into the installation’s physical construction. The
wheel’s indexing mechanism is produced using Jean Baudrillard’s
“Simulations”, whose pages function as the mechanical click-stop of the
rotating wheel.
At the same time, the installation adopts the visual language
of the book’s first edition, transforming theory into both mechanism
and interface. The selected prizes—VR headsets, cameras, drones, smart
assistants, and digital devices—are themselves technologies of simulation,
reinforcing the work’s central proposition: the reward is not the object,
but the simulacrum itself.