In Basel and Venice, Jordan Wolfson's disturbing robots and avatars

Little known to the general public, even though his work has been presented in several American and European museums, Jordan Wolfson (born in 1980) is nevertheless highly regarded by the art market, especially since he has been represented by the powerful galleries Sadies Coles, Larry Gagosian and David Zwirner. Initially interested in video, he then turned his attention to the possibilities offered by computers. Thus, Female Figure (2014) is one of the centerpieces of Laurent Asscher's "AMA Collection" and sits majestically in the space that the Belgian-Monegasque billionaire and art collector, who is very likeable by the way, opened in April in the Cannaregio district of Venice, Italy.

It would be better to say that she wiggles there: the work is a female robot (and strongly sexualized despite a rather hideous mask) who dances, not clinging to one of those vertical metal bars familiar to striptease enthusiasts, but connected to the wall by a horizontal chrome tube that looks very similar. This is for the visible part.

On the other side of the wall that supports the mirror where she contemplates herself (at the same time as she looks at the spectators), a young woman, this one real, is wisely seated in a small office closed to view, and taps on the keyboards of a battery of computers without which the work would be incomplete: what the sculpture "sees" in the facial expressions of the visitors is processed using facial recognition software by the computer scientist in order to allow the dancing robot to interact with their reactions.

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