Paris-Gonesse Project n.03 Mehryl Levisse

Mehryl Levisse titled his residency Parasitism, a metaphor for the positive consumer–resource interaction between a living organism and its host. His practice entered the company’s working environment quietly, starting from the assumption that, from a functional point of view, his presence was optional and unnecessary.

Through a series of actions in the workshop he infiltrated the factory’s visual language with physical “glitches”, sometimes surreal, sometimes satirical. Pushing the idea of uselessness further, he created new spatial zones using visual codes already present at Bernard Controls, such as floor markings – but in a new colour: pink tape, often leading nowhere. He called them “zones of uselessness”. These small disruptive elements slightly changed the working environment and questioned everyday habits at work.

In the second part of the project he worked with the engineers of Bernard Controls France to create a wallpaper: each element of the composition turns a mechanical drawing actually used to build the actuators into an ornamental pattern. The residency ended with a two-hour performance in the company showroom: a performer dressed as a hostess, in a handmade Bernard Controls blue costume, made slow, simple gestures as if presenting products at a trade fair.