Time in Parentheses, Paris FIAC

Created as part of a partnership between FIAC Hors les Murs, Maison de la Radio, and École Boulle, Time in Parentheses was developed for a sound-art parcours conceived as an extension of the fair into the public and architectural space of the Maison de la Radio.

The broader exhibition brought together a series of site-specific listening installations and sound works, curated as moments of pause within the institution’s circulation path. Using recyclable honeycomb cardboard, the installations responded both to the acoustic nature of the program and to a wider environmental consciousness, echoing the material discourse surrounding COP21.

Within this curatorial framework, Time in Parentheses explores the notion of the “zone of silence” described by Erik Samakh as a place inhabited by a certain life, yet impenetrable to human presence.

Its suspended curved form creates a literal parenthesis in dialogue with the arc of the Galerie Seine, offering visitors a spatial pause within the exhibition journey. The intervention acts as a threshold between movement and stillness, momentarily interrupting the rhythm of circulation to create an immersive listening experience.

The installation is composed of five honeycomb cardboard panels arranged into a vertically supported curve, stabilized by structural braces. By intentionally altering the materiality of the listening device, the project translates a gradual passage from light into darkness. Backlit from behind, the structure heightens the contrast between transparency and opacity, revealing the transformation of the surface while amplifying the atmospheric tension of the piece.