15th and 16th March 2005 / ESAAIX school / Aix-en-Provence – France
List of guest artists : Guérine Regnaut, Fernand Fernandez, Jankenpopp, Aurélien Boyer, Antonin Fourneau, Nao, Adelin Schweitzer, Annabelle, Marilou, Quentin Destieu and Sylvain Huguet (Dardex), Dominique Sinibaldi, TM, Douglas Edric Stanley, Marie Mouysset, Loïs Roussillon, Manuel Braun and Stefan Piat.
In 2005, Antonin Fourneau was preparing for his diploma at the School of Art in Aix-en-Provence, marking the end of his 5-year art studies, and was grappling with questions about the future of his creative practice that sought to engage with the public. Through various research and collaborations on collective projects and questioning the existing platforms for artistic expression, he became interested in the format of the carnival and amusement attraction as a model for providing an experience to the public, in an attempt to break some existing conventions at the time and offer an alternative to the traditional formats of festivals, galleries, and museums.
Thus, the first edition of ENIAROF was launched in March 2005, in collaboration with students and teachers from the School of Fine Arts in Aix-en-Provence. Thanks to a strong synergy among the different classes at the school, the format of a 10-day joint workshop followed by two intense evenings was developed to obtain around 15 attractions of which :
- L’homme escargot by Fernand Fernandez, a freak performances in which a man with a lettuce in his mouth was locked in a cage with snails.
- Mouse racing by the Dardex art group (Quentin Destieu and Sylvain Huguet), a sound-generating and VJing mouse race.
- The Royal Catch Club by Annabelle Marilou and Fantine, A mud wrestling championship was organized, with costumes made from recycled clothing donated by Emmaüs.
- 24h TF1 by Damien Berthier, In a daring performance, the artist remained seated on a tall couch facing the audience, all the while glued to the screen of TF1, the popular French television channel. This is a nod to the scandal of the “human brain time” that Patrick Lelay, former director of TF1, claimed as the economic model for television.
- The Karaoke by Guerine Regnaut, home made vidéo karaoke clip both satirical and tribute to the pop culture.
The public also had the opportunity to discover the ENIAROF arcade room, which featured the first pallet arcade machines, including :
- Invaders! by Douglas Edric Stanley is a physical video game that involves detecting the arms and legs of participants using a camera, in order to launch shots that defend the World Trade Center towers against an extraterrestrial attack in the style of the original Taito game Space Invaders.
- Vocal Claw Crane by Antonin Fourneau, a voice-activated carnival claw machine. The louder you yell, the lower the claw descends to grab one of the characters parading below. It’s up to you to find the right timing. Once caught, a template of your chosen goodie is printed, allowing you to carefully cut and assemble it later.
- Load Runner by Jankenpopp, which became a regular feature of ENIAROF with their alternative controllers (a term that was still uncommon at the time).
- Fire by Manuel Braun, celebrating the old game&watch Fire game but with a armchair as controller instead of the cross pad.
- PongNet by Antonin Fourneau and Erational, two Gameboy’s connected by a cable are placed on a miniature replica of a ping pong table. Visitors are invited to play a classic version of the video game « Pong » (tennis game). Unlike the original game, the ball is not visible to both players at the same time but passes from one screen to the other creating a surprise.
