French Literature Reviews - 2026
Archifiction: Exploring the Intersections of Visual Arts and Fiction
Art and Visual Culture
ARCHIFICTION: EXPLORING THE INTERSECTIONS OF VISUAL ARTS, THE WEB, AND FICTION
BERNARD GUELTON
Publications de la Sorbonne
March 2007
http://www.univ-paris1.fr/IMG/pdf/561_archifiction_dos.pdf
While literature and cinema have inspired extensive theoretical discourse on fiction, other domains connected to the visual arts remain largely unexplored. Exhibitions may draw upon canonical forms of fiction (such as video, film, and text-based installations), but they also engage with still images, spatial installations, and performance art. What is the specific weight of each of these elements in relation to fiction? What emerges from their potential interplay? Furthermore, what role is assigned to the 'scenario,' the exhibition designer, or the visitor?
Two prevailing clichés heavily shape contemporary art's engagement with fiction. The first describes the artwork as suspended between reality and fiction. The second explains this indeterminacy as a consequence of the spectacularization of the world and the blurring boundaries between lived experience and its representation. What lies behind these clichés, and what are the limits of an all-encompassing fictionality?
The relationship between architecture and fiction in contemporary art exhibitions is examined through a series of solo projects created by the author between 1993 and 2001, alongside five key paradigms characteristic of contemporary creation: site-specific art and readymades, abstract painting and performance, and collaborative practices.
Operating at the margins of canonical narratives, artistic and visual fictions prompt us to question the nature of belief and the significance of various levels of representation in constructing fictional worlds. Yet, across the multitude of examples that can be drawn upon to illustrate artistic fictions, do they not continually invite us—each in its own distinct way—to transition from one world to another? And with each transition, do they not slightly diminish the primacy of our ordinary world by opening it up to a plurality of possible worlds?
The intersections between contemporary art practices and narrative structures have long prompted critical inquiry across the humanities, particularly regarding how spatial installations and visual displays construct alternative environments. While film and literature command extensive critical attention, the narrative dimensions of exhibitions, spatial installations, and still imagery remain comparatively less examined within traditional literary and art historical discourse. Readers interested in the theoretical dimensions of contemporary artistic creation and exhibition design may find this study relevant.
Examining solo projects created by the author between 1993 and 2001 alongside paradigms such as site-specific art, readymades, abstract painting, performance, and collaborative practices, the volume investigates the relationship between architecture and fiction in contemporary art exhibitions. By analyzing the role of the visitor, the exhibition designer, and the scenario, the text addresses the ways artistic fictions engage with belief and levels of representation. These inquiries place the work within broader discussions concerning the nature of fictional worlds and their relationship to ordinary reality.