Erwan Sene – JunQ [PAN]

Erwan Sene is an artist and musician based in Paris. His composite body of work is led by a sculptural practice that unfolds on several levels–– reprising, digesting and warping the objects that surround him. He creates polyphonous mise-en-scènes, between baroque remanence and domestic surrealism, addressing themes of contamination, idiopathy and science fiction.

JUnQ (the Journal of Unsolved Questions), his latest release, is modelled on a parallel exercise: to sketch music and to score sculptures. Part exhibition, part book and part album release, JUnQ seeks to propose a collaborative language that binds the algorithmic needs of an artificial pop star to the performance of the artist himself. Boundaries between reality and artifice are blurred in a continuous chain of confrontation and sublimation, wherein a romance between analog evolution and digital experimentation is born.

The immersive project released by PAN represents Erwan Sene’s debut album and the multifaceted nature of his approach. Composed like a chorus of fantastical beasts, the album wanders atmospherically through a fogged wood. Sounds are never used for their default function–– they are sculpted, distorted and amplified, becoming hybrids of themselves. A haunting banshee, the monstrous growl of an Orc, Siren songs wafting through the trees–– these and more are recreated with sinuous violins, muffled harpsichord and digital instruments, culminating in a a vibrant «jungle» of sound.

Regarding the book JUnQ, each page dives into the neon structures of Sene’s Cronenberg-like mutations: miniatures, models and ventilation details echo the micro-evolution of Sene’s «imaginary mundane.» Moments of object recognition flicker before receding from view. Appropriating the mechanisms of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sene seeks to conjure the sense of entrapment brought on by infection, affecting containment in the microscopic abstractions he presents of his own sculptural work. Casting his contained biotope as a friend, rather than a foe, the fragmented view of these works imbues them with a sense of intimacy and primacy.

Release date: April 14th, 2023.