A leading figure in digital art whose works stem from the Web3 revolution, as well as an emblematic artist on the French and international electronic scene, AGORIA is invited to bring his unique perspective to the Musée d’Orsay, its architecture and its masterpieces.
Sébastien Devo, known as AGORIA, is a digital artist whose works merge the physical and the virtual, the living and the coded. Today, Agoria is among the most active artists in the emerging Web3 universe. He develops his entire artistic practice around biological generative art, i.e. creating works using algorithms, artificial intelligence and data extracted from living matter.
He surrounds himself with specialists and scientists to create works that combine art, music, metaverse and science, with the aim of inscribing life into the blockchain.
In recent years, an artistic universe has emerged related to the creation of a new online ecosystem in Web3 based on blockchain. This creative space brings together a real community that finds resonance in institutions such as the Musée d’Orsay.
The 19th century is the century of the birth of modernity and audacity, but also of critical clashes, such as Impressionism. The Musée d’Orsay therefore wishes to explore the relationship between the emergence of this experimental art and its collections.
As part of the collaboration, entitled {Le Code d’Orsay}, AGORIA presents two works created in response to the museum’s collections and developed on the Tezos blockchain:
- The first, Σ Lumina, is marked by a poetic, experimental and participatory dimension (presented at LUMINA) / ALL U RE – 9 Saborna, str.
- The second, Interpretation through Saccharomyces cerevisiae of Gustave Courbet’s “Atelier du Artist” (presented at ART FAIR SOFIA), very closely unites the worlds of art and science / Sofia Art Fair 2025 – Sofia Tech Park
This connection is at the heart of the artist’s approach, who wants to show that the coded and digital are inseparable from the physical and living.
Σ Lumina by AGORIA
Σ Lumina is an installation taking place at Musée d’Orsay from February 13th to March 10th,
2024. Visitors use their breath to create unique digital works which now become one with {Σ Lumina}.
Both a portal and an antenna, Σ Lumina connects us to a cultural and historical heritage, establishing a dialogue between ages. A sculpture that stands as a sentinel of time.
Σ Lumina reveals itself as a prism, capturing not only light but also its ghost. A dream trap, a bridge between epochs, a path crossing the past, the present, and the future.
Breath, the vital essence, embodies our interconnection. It carries our shared heritage. A medium that helps Σ Lumina to unite the physical and the digital, the living with the coded. The voices of Orsay resonate within us, their breath becoming ours, landscaping our common creation.
In the spirit of “Le nageur” by Gustave Caillebotte.
Σ Lumina by AGORIA will be presented at boutique ALL U RE – 9 Saborna, str.
Interpretation through Saccharomyces cerevisiae of Gustave Courbet’s “Atelier du Artist”
In collaboration with scientists Nicolas Desprats, Jean-Baptiste Boulet, Manuel Terry and Julien Mozziconacci, AGORIA invites you to discover “Interpretation by Saccharomyces cerevisiae of Gustave Courbet’s “Atelier du Artist”.
This work raises the question of memory and transmission and is the result of the curation and retelling of a biological experiment with a culture of yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae).
The conditions for growing the yeast reproduce important historical events that occurred during the artist’s life. The data from the experiment allow the painting “Atelier du Artist” to be animated. The digital work breathes life into Gustave Courbet’s work and reveals its vitality.
Authors:
- Nicolas Desprats, associate professor at the University of Paris Cité, affiliated with the Laboratory of Physics at the ENS
- Jean-Baptiste Boulet, director of research at the CNRS and director of the “Structure and instability of genomes” laboratory at the National Museum of Natural History
- Manuel Terry, researcher at the CEA and lecturer in biophysics at ESPCI Paris
- Julien Mociconacci, professor at the National Museum of Natural History and coordinator of the analytical department
- AGORIA
Interpretation through Saccharomyces cerevisiae of Gustave Courbet’s “Atelier du Artist” will be presented at Sofia Art Fair 2025 – Sofia Tech Park