« It is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism. » This formula summarises what British author and philosopher Mark Fisher calls « capitalist realism »: the feeling that capitalism is the only viable system, to the point that it becomes difficult to imagine a coherent alternative. By conditioning cultural production, work organisation and education, he draws an invisible barrier around thought. If capitalism shapes even our imaginations, what place is left for artistic creation? And under what conditions can it be practised? The approaches of artists Milo Clément Philipp and Vincent Bergeron, presented two weeks ago at the Paris Festival of Different and Experimental Cinemas, offer two ways to explore these tensions.
Doomscrolling and supermarket : a capitalist bad trip
Capitalist realism draws part of its strength from its ability to absorb and consume history. Fisher then speaks of an « equivalence system » capable of assigning monetary value to any cultural object. Torn out of context, practises and rituals become simple aesthetics, while past beliefs are reduced to artefacts. All that remains is the « consumer-spectator », who crosses these ruins as an observer. « Faced with the current absurdity of things, we would like to understand what we are, what we do, » explains Vincent Bergeron. It is this cathartic trigger that pushed him to question the assumptions of capitalist ideology in his short film dansLeRêveDeQuelqu’unD’Autre. This quote, taken from a book by Fisher, Spectre of my life, emphasises a double dispossession: the imaginary that shape our desires in the face of the system that produces them. Caught in a universe that surpasses us, being in someone else’s dream is tantamount to living in a world whose rules we do not control, but to which we nevertheless contribute to give shape.
In his short film, the director gives shape to this condition of « consumer-spectator » by assembling images gleaned on the Internet. His approach explores the cognitive mechanisms that guide our attention and our perception of reality. « We all have a role in the responsibility of images as soon as we transform them or bring them a point of view. » In a black and white universe, Ness, an iconic character in the video game Earthbound, wanders in Third-Person-Shooter in a space overloaded with information. In front of him sweeps a flood of images. Elon Musk’s Nazi salute, a speech by Marine Le Pen, names of Palestinians killed and scenes of intensive agriculture rub shoulders with satisfying videos and references to Paranormal Activity or Enter the Void. All this without hierarchy in liminal spaces. The disturbing soundtrack that accompanies it, accentuates the experience of doomscrolling, in which the most tragic images become content among others, delivered to endless consumption.
But questioning the way in which images shape our perception of reality also involves questioning the conditions in which they are produced, disseminated and made visible. However, experimentation does not guarantee an escape from capitalism. Fisher also notes that the so-called « alternative » and « independent » productions still remain trapped styles within the system.
This reality is also accompanied by a « cancellation of the future ». By recycling and reconditioning the cultural forms of the past, capitalism reduces our ability to imagine something truly new. This difficulty in conceiving other futures invites us to turn to the most ordinary spaces of our daily lives, where mercantile logics seem to be self-evident.
Milo Clément Philipp seizes precisely one of these spaces. In his animated short film Vous avez la carte du magasin ?, the familiar space of the supermarket is disturbed, the images fragment in a form of instability. « It’s an essay on the perceptions I have in the supermarket, » explains the filmmaker, who works in particular with 3D and VFX. As the gesture of consumption is repeated, the advertising overstimulation tips the character into a psychotic and dreamlike experience. “The supermarket is becoming an evil identity. Everything is becoming a little animistic.” Halfway between Backrooms and Sausage Party under LSD, the supermarket becomes the scene of a bad trip of capitalism, where advertising batting imposes itself on the consumer as a drug administered by force. In this atmosphere, the narration disappears in favour of symbols, such as the Romanesco cabbage. Its fractal structure embodies, according to the filmmaker, an organic and decentralised complexity, contrary to the hierarchical organisation of the industrial world. By disorienting the viewer, Milo Clément Philipp invites him to reconstruct himself the meaning of the images and to consider other logics than those that govern this merchant universe.
Between « lost futures » and new creativity
Thinking about the present also means considering absences, legacies and futures that have never been realised. In 2021, Mark Fisher uses the notion of « hantology » to refer to the persistence of historical possibilities that the present seems to have abandoned. He points the finger at the « lost futures » of our capitalist societies: from the technological promises of flying cars, domestic robots or teleportation to the hope of a communist world. This question of the possibilities also goes through the conception of Vincent Bergeron’s creation: « I don’t think we create things, I think we reshape or bring our own point of view on a subject ». A way of considering art as a permanent transformation of materials and inherited meanings.
However, this reflection on the persistence of the past does not exclude the possibility of inventing new forms. In an article published in 2021, the philosopher Matt Bluemink proposes the concept of « anti-hantology » to nuance Fisher’s pessimism. Some artists manage to rearrange the traces of the past to produce new forms, rather than indefinitely reproducing those that already exist. Anti-hantology presupposes a transformation of aesthetic languages, sensitivities and collective expectations, likely to go beyond the sole field of experimentation.
Compose with the system
The exercise of an artistic career remains marked by structural precariousness and strong inequalities in access to resources. Access to residences, scholarships or public subsidies requires mastering administrative procedures and having professional networks. These supports may also be accompanied by constraints on production conditions. Milo Clément Philipp, who is beginning to benefit from public funding, thus anticipates negotiations with producers, financial requirements, artistic compromises and possible risks of censorship. To supplement his income, he carries out editing and special effects missions: « For now, I like this model ».
Faced with these difficulties, the collective is a lever for professionalisation and mutual aid. Co-founded in 2021 by Vincent Bergeron, the Lyon association La Planque brings together multidisciplinary artists. Their approach: a pooling of know-how and professionalisation based on mutual aid and the collective development of projects. « Little by little, we are building network and resources, » he explains. At the same time, he collaborated with psychology researcher Bilge Sayim on the mechanisms of visual perception, at the crossroads of scientific research and artistic creation. For Milo Clément Philipp, also a member of La Planque, collective making carries another conception of cinematographic work. He denounces the centralised authoritarian hierarchy around the director and refuses the division of tasks « as in the factory », which obscures the « little hands » participating in the production of the films. A position that has notably diverted him from animation studios, whose segmentation of work and standardisation of productions he criticises.
Behind the myth of artistic genius, Vincent Bergeron denounces a bourgeois conception of art that obscures the material realities of creation. He opposes him with the notion of « art worker », which invites us to rethink the remuneration of artistic activity beyond the only heritage rights associated with the works, on which the artist-authors regime is based in particular. « We would like salaries that recognise our work and research time ». A claim that echos the National Union of Professional Artists (SNAP), which defends the remuneration of research and preparation activities, often made invisible in favour of the completed work.
By organising themselves through intermediate places, wasteland or cooperatives based on « joint entrepreneurship« , artists pool their equipment, administrative skills and dissemination spaces, replacing a dynamic of solidarity with individual competition. This collective grouping not only alleviates the feeling of precariousness, but also provides artists with renewed political weight. Here, dialogue with communities becomes essential to defend the place of art in society.
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