The second edition of Green Cloud (Nuage Vert) aims to highlight the cloud of vapour emitted by the waste incinerator in Saint-Ouen, using a green laser beam which draws the outline in real-time. Beyond the spectacle of the projection onto a power plant emission, Green Cloud is also an open space, a canvas onto which each individual can project their questions concerning our consumer-waste culture.

Green Cloud in Saint-Ouen, photo by HeHe during the first test, 27 march 2009

During the nine months of preparation in Saint Ouen, the project has generated a social-cultural process, in dialogue with politics and industry. Even if this dialogue has not been in favour of the project so far, it constitutes part of the work, has been documented and will be exhibited during Futur en Seine as part of the festival Mal au pixel at Mains d’Oeuvres. The process truly represents the nature of a technological prototype: which entails stimulating a critical public debate about the technological subject engaged as well as the development of the technology itself; in this case the waste treatment in the region of Paris.

It is not possible to realise Green Cloud in Saint-Ouen for the timeframe of the festival Futur en Seine. But the presence of Green Cloud during the festival Mal au Pixel is a direct continuation of the series of discussions that have happened in Saint-Ouen organised by the opposition, associations and the Marie de Saint Ouen, regarding the issues surrounding the future of the incinerator and the town. In the exhibition space, the public is invited to participate in an artistic vision of waste and redraw contemporary visual recycling culture, in association with Friends of the Earth.

Following the exhibition of the prototype and the dialogues that it incites, we hope for a an answer from local politicians and citizens to the big open question mark: When will there be a green cloud in Saint-Ouen?

Green Cloud is a project initiated by HeHe and was premiered in 2008 at Pixelache festival Helsinki. Green Cloud has been awarded numerous international prizes, amongst which the Golden Nica for Hybrid Art at the festival Ars Electronica in 2008. For full documentation of the Helsinki edition, please visit the previous website: www.vihreapilvi.org.

For further information please contact: contact {AT} hehe.org