"Variants" di Pierre Huyghe: la contingenza on-display

The essay puts forward an analysis of a recent on-site intervention by prominent french artist Pierre Huyghe on an island in Norway (Jevnaker, Kistefos Museum, 2021-), identifying the most re- levant issues raised by the installation in the following terms: the juxtaposition of natural environment and simulated environment by AI devices as generators of events and images; the emphasis on the contingency and ‘unpredictability’ of such productions; the presentation of the installation as an aggregate milieu. All aspects that, taken together, convey an artistic thought with strong ecological-critical accents. With suggestions mainly concerning a reconsideration of the concepts of immersiveness and interactivity of installation, the logic of the aggregate as a logic of connection supporting a kind of ‘non-performative’ display, and finally, a different environmental (and non-prosthetic) syntax, to arrange and face augmented reality.