Plagio.2, 2023

Mathias Gramoso’s plagio.2 (2023) is a multimedia installation that translates poetic content into sound and geometric patterns on the surface of water, offering a tangible perception of human emotion. Created in collaboration with sound engineer and musician Roman Gebhardt, the project reinterprets a verse from Positions et Propositions by French poet Paul Claudel, interpreted in English as ‘All that the heart desires can always be reduced to the shape of water.’ The viewer is invited to observe a body of water in a darkened space, where a spotlight shines at the center of the pool. Using a generative algorithm, the artwork transcribes the verse’s words into sound, which is then reflected in the water through geometric waves reverberating from the frequencies. Claudel’s verse seemingly undergoes a distillation process, where human sentiment is extracted, fed into a machine and reverted to the human observer, inspiring contemplation on the relationship between nature and our emotions.