After devoting Station 2 of the space brain Laboratory to the relations between perception and space, the Institut d’art contemporain invited Station 3 participants to share their theoretical proposals concerning the grasp of the real specific to modified states of awareness. Different types of changes in awareness were studied and, working from there, the possibilities thus made available in terms of cognitive models. Hypnosis was in the forefront of the mental operations mentioned.
Matt Mullican’s performance and exhibition presented by the Institut d'art contemporain form exemplary use of the spatialisation potential of states of trance. Notably, hypnosis makes it possible to leave a traditional perception pattern in which a unique, indivisible and interiorised subject receives information that is external to him. This movement of division, multiplication or even the splitting of subjective perception echoes research in ethnology. The special procedures of different trance rituals (fasting, autosuggestion, the taking of hallucinogens) and the access thereby to extended, collective awareness are thus shown. This leads to an even more general conceptual dissolution of the notion of the individual through the pooling or externalisation of thought and perception.
A retro-perspective look at the importance that these ways of reading the real have had on the history of avant-garde shows clearly the inherent subversive power of these specific cognitive experiences through their potential dialogue with plastic, conceptual or even choreographic creative activity.

MRI scans of Matt Mullican’s brain, in a normal state and under hypnosis.

Matt Mullican, Learning From That Person’s Work, Room 6 (Panneaux n°61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71 et 72), 2005.
12 panels with 9 drawings each, ink on paper mounted on fabric
Collection Institut d’art contemporain de Villeurbanne. © Blaise Adilon