The Living Govern the Dead
In 2018, David Fathi presents The Dead Govern the Living, an installation for the Maison Auguste Comte in Paris.
Five years later, he shows a new installation of the same work for the Festival of Photography in Niort, and a journalist writes in an article that this work “uses artificial intelligence to zombify violent politicians” even though the work was entirely made with real archives. As we fear fake AI images being seen as real, it was an example of the opposite, where a journalist thought real images were in fact fake.
In reaction to this, and at the invitation of the International Festival of Journalism, David Fathi decided to do exactly that; remake his own work but with generated fake images.
Can images be trusted? Can journalists be trusted? Can institutions be trusted? In the new accelerated era of fake news, these questions heat up ever increasing debates. But when we believe we are unable to separate fact from fiction, might the real threat not be being fooled by fakes? But rather not caring anymore, and just giving up on a shared reality of images?
The Living Govern the Dead gallery: 12 selected images. Uncaptioned images form part of the visual sequence.
