Catalogue > At random

To Ashes explores the thresholds between reality and machinic hallucination, questioning contemporary image-generation technologies — particularly artificial intelligence — and their influence on our perception of the real. Created through a hybrid process combining 3D modeling and AI-based generation tools, the video unfolds as a continuous tracking shot through a brutalist megastructure in constant transformation. Architectural forms disintegrate and transform, while ash-like particles rise into the air. This disintegration is accompanied by an experimental soundscape, where analog synthesizers and transformed voices evoke a latent collapse. Gradually, the architecture gives way to unstable crystalline structures. Reality wavers. In the end, something gives way, shifts, disappears. Everything must burn.

Thomas Léon develops his practice by merging cinema, graphic arts and images from new technologies. He creates films, immersive video and sound installations, as well as large-format drawings. His work explores the interconnections between memory, sensuality, intimate experiences, and the imaginary, drawing on fictions, whether they be social, urban, climatic, etc. He is notably influenced by science fiction and utopian literature and frequently develops his projects using contemporary image creation tools (3D modeling, AI, etc.). He regularly participates in screenings or exhibitions in France and abroad: 'Listening to Transparency' at the Minsheng Art Museum in Shanghai (China, 2017), 'Cruces Sonoros: Mundos Posibles' at the MAC in Santiago de Chile (Chile, 2016), 'Rendez-vous 11' at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Villeurbanne (France, 2011), and at the South African National Gallery in Cape Town (South Africa, 2012). He notably took part in residencies : Drawing Factory organized by CNAP (National Center for Visual Arts) and the Drawing Lab (Paris) in 2021 ; a residency in Taiwan, organized by Grame, the National Center for Musical Creation (Lyon), and the Digital Art Center (Taipei) in 2011. His works can be found in the collections of CNAP (National Center for Visual Arts) and the Louis Vuitton Foundation. Thomas Léon lives and works in Montreuil.