Sylvie Ungauer

Sylvie Ungauer was born in Voiron, France, in 1963 and lives and works in Brest. 

Sylvie Ungauer’s practice explores the connections and networks that structure society, as well as the relationships between individuals, their surroundings, and the outside world. She often works with materials and technologies that facilitate communication and transmission, including video, optical fiber, and the internet. Her installations examine how these systems shape the ways we connect to one another and experience our environment. 

During her residency at Atelier Calder, Ungauer created two works, At Home and Village (both 2000), which were later presented in a solo exhibition at Frac Centre in Orléans. At Home depicted a city inspired by urban and industrial architecture, as well as elements drawn from fashion and everyday life. The structures were similar in scale and covered with knitted video tape, normally used to carry images and information, which here becomes the element that connects them. Village addressed the paradox of the internet: although users are connected through the same network, they remain physically isolated from one another. Small, illuminated screens linked by optical fiber represented these individual users, highlighting how the internet had transformed communication and existing forms of social interaction.