Blind figures, in literature and art, have often had the role of predicting future catastrophic events. In literature, for instance, a blind man predicted Oedipus disastrous inexorable destiny. It appears that blindness confers certain powers to those unable to see, even if they can’t grasp reality through their eyes, they are somehow connected to the invisible world. Thinking of the most disadvantaged minorities, one could assume blindness is a condition not suited for our times. And certainly this is partly true, almost everything is constructed or has the finality of enchanting the sight; technologies and media revolve around the circulation of images and video. Nevertheless, visual excess paralyses our emotional responses, it is more puzzling now to see nothing than to see a corpse.

In terms of contemporary creations, other strategies are being adopted by artists, curators and historians who, to contribute to the awakening of the eye, are turning to conceptual images or imaginary worlds. Well aware of the powers of technology needed to encourage spectators to discover original copies of Mesopotamian masterpieces – exhibited at the Louvre – but without distracting them: Payant’s nanostructures are a first encounter invisible to the eye. The artist’s witty strategy not only awakes the visitors’ curiosity, but also questions art’s status, do we need to see art so it can be considered as such? This view is no longer being solicited as spirituality and faith became decisive in apprehending the artworks.

As paradoxical as it may seem, nano objects, constructed with the latest technology belong to the realm of faith, seeing not always means believing. This “transvaluation of values”, where invisibility renders visible, focuses on what the artist described as the “depression of the original”, as the paintings or sculptures destiny in our contemporary world fade, copies gain in power and the original’s relevance is lost. To illustrate his point, Paysant gives the example of museums and how, in the spirit of enticing audiences with gadgets and audio guides, they disturb the viewer from the original relegating it to a second place. From the artist’s perspective, blindness is not necessarily the lack of sight, it is almost willingly choosing not to see, it is ignoring what is in front of our eyes. The artist proposes to reconstruct vision not via images, neither with interactive technologies, but rather through unperceivable objects, blindness hence, is a shock therapy revitalizing our sight.

In addition to investigating our “perceptive vision”, the copy’s condition has always attracted artists’ attention and Paysant is no exception. For a project that unfortunately never saw the light, he envisioned to reproduce, on a nanoscale, Duchamp’s famous Fountain. In spite of not realising the copy, the idea makes us question the evolution of aesthetics over the past decade and how absurdity has taken over art. If we could qualify this as an almost cynical act, Paysant’s approach could be seen to be more about inquiring on how sight continues to regulate the world. Even with an increasing number of artists turning to sound and “physical” experiences, the ocular organ still monopolises our senses. Eye tracking, another project analyzing how our eyes function, reaffirms this.