Philippe Parreno AC/DC Platform, 2013

The work consists of two AC/DC Snakes, connected to a large rectangular podium made from opalescent acrylic glass. One AC/DC Snake is plugged into a socket in the podium, the other is connected by a black extension cord and placed beside it.

The AC/CD Snakes are assembled from multiple adapters, plugs and nightlights. In characteristic T shapes or angular formations, the assemblies of differently shaped elements have a slightly robotic quality. AC/CD Snakes were first created in 1995 on the occasion of Philippe Parreno’s exhibition Snow Dancing at Le Consortium in Dijon.

The podium is lit from the inside in a predetermined rhythm; the nightlights glow in the intervals when the lights of the podium are dimmed.

AC/DC Platform is, in the artist’s words, a quasi-object. Originally devised by French philosopher Michel Serres, and then developed by fellow philosopher Bruno Latour, for Parreno the concept designates the existence of objects as inseparable from the relationship to the context in which they are exhibited.