Bliss, 2001
interactive video
Actors : Olivier Bardin et Annabel Vergne
Voices : Martin Le Chevallier (french et italian),
Floyd Humphrey (English)
Video DVPAL 1:33, stereo sound, variable length.
Print: 5 + 1HC
Collection : Centre National des Arts Plastiques (CNAP), Paris

Made at the Villa Médicis in Rome, Bliss is about the quest for collective happiness. The interactive format allows viewers to wander freely through a selection of video sequences, each of which features two idle characters. The navigation is accompanied by a voice-off (see text below) describing an ideal society founded on a multitude of abolitions: servitude, private ownership, religion, work, and family, etc. Bliss prefigures the collaborative encyclopedia abolitions.net

VOICE-OFF TEXT
According to the tradition, they are forever looking for the land where people don’t die.
After Claude Lévi-Strauss, on the Tupi-Guarani (Tristes Tropiques)

The fact is, though, that they gave up those futile roamings a long time ago They take each day as it comes, and don’t spare much of a thought for the morrow, which will take care of itself.
After Dieudonné Zognong (article: “Profils anthropologiques des Pygmées”)

When it comes to finding food, all they have to do is stretch up and pick that sweet and tasty fruit so kindly offered by the stout oak tree. Limpid springs and swift rivers provide a generous abundance of pure, transparent water. Industrious bees build their nests in cracks in rocks and hollows of tree trunks. First come first served gets their rich, delicious harvest, and the bees ask for nothing in return. Everything is peace, harmony and concord.
After Cervantes (The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote de la Mancha)

The earth is arranged in such a way that, over its entire expanse, it forms a single city, made up of quite distinct towns and villages which have everything they need to function properly. Each one is a demi-paradise, linked up with all the other towns and villages on the planet, in such a way that the whole earth forms just this single large City which is called New Jerusalem, or the United Earthly Paradise. The areas between the towns and villages are laid out as gardens, copses, and fertile fields, and are all as lovely as it is possible for human knowledge and scientific methods to make them.
After Robert Owen (Millennial Gazette)

Their thoughts do not stray to conquering new lands, for they enjoy such an abundance that there is no point in expanding their boundaries. They are here to stay in this happy spot, desirous only of what their natural requirements ordain; everything over and above that is superfluous for them.
After Montaigne’s “Of Cannibals” (Essays)

So the concept of homeland is thoroughly alien to them.
After Henry Habib Ayrout, on Egyptian peasants (Ethnologie régionale I, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade)

In these parts no one would dream of lending a sacred character to a border, or defending the land of their forbears.
After Jacques Weulersse, on the Middle-Eastern peasants (Ethnologie régionale I, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade)

Nor would anyone dream of going after power. At the outset, people would climb the rungs of the social ladder by giving away their possessions rather than accumulating them. People would actually acquire power through their extravagant generosity, at ceremonies when pigs were sacrificed, at parties they held, and meals they offered.
After Françoise Girard, on New Guineans (Ethnologie régionale I, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade)

Then the social and political organization became democratic. All the members of one and same extended family would choose from their midst a representative or a leader. All these leaders together formed a council. And when a decision had to be made, instead of counting votes they proceeded in a much more elegant and courteous way, which involved thrashing things out in discussion until they were all of one and the same mind – and they always unfailingly achieved this goal of unanimity.
After Bengt Danielsson, on Polynesians (Ethnologie régionale I, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade)

Right now all the decisions have been taken, so there is no longer any leader, any council, or any State. All those things have become completely pointless. There is no army whatsoever. They were very peace-loving folk, and had settled there so as to carry on their trade. They had refused to bear arms, for all that occupied their thoughts was making their nest egg bear fruit.
After Henri Lhote, on Mozabites (Ethnologie régionale, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade)

The mild climate they enjoyed meant that they could harvest the fruit of the bread tree, and gather tubers and bananas all year round. What is more, they also had access to a sea brimming with every manner of fish. In this way, each and every person had no trouble seeing to their own needs, as well as those of their families. All forms of trade and barter soon served no purpose, and before very long all that disappeared.
After Bengt Danielsson, on Polynesians (Ethnologie régionale I, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade)

As for property, this had not disappeared, which explained why there was a police force. This police force did not entertain the idea that punishing the guilty should involve any severing of social bonds, so there were no prisons. If someone broke the law, they were punished by having all their possessions destroyed. But by the same token, the police would assume a debt towards the lawbreaker; it thus fell to the police to organize the collective compensation of the damages suffered by the guilty party, for their punishment. This compensation meant that the guilty person was under an obligation to the group. So he, or she, in their turn, had to show their gratitude in the form of presents which the whole community – including the police itself – helped to gather together, which reversed all their relationships once again; and so it went on, until a whole series of presents and presents-forpresents had come full circle, the earlier disorder was gradually sorted out and the initial state of order was restored.
After Claude Lévi-Strauss, on the Plains Indians of North America (Tristes tropiques)

In the end, they found this system a bit complicated. They introduced equality of goods and possessions. As a result of this, there was no thieving; because theft is a desire to acquire things that you don’t have and things that you are jealous of others having. But as soon as everybody owns the very same possessions, this criminal desire can no longer exist. Internal divisions were kept at bay by the equality of ranks and possessions, and in this way all motives for murder were also done away with. Through equality there was no more greed or ambition. Nor were there heirs eager to enjoy inheritances, for it was in fact age which handed down possessions, and never the death of parents; and because there was nothing to gain from such deaths, there were no more cases of parricide or fratricide, and there were no other such atrocities, either. There were few suicides, for only misfortune would have lead to such a thing – and here, because everyone was happy, and all were equally as happy as everyone else, why would anyone want to try and kill themselves?
After D.A.F. de Sade (Aline and Valcour)

In the end, property was abolished. To begin with, ownership of the tools of production, then, not longer after that, ownership of all other goods and possessions. Today, they subscribe to a spirit of good faith, about which there is no doubt in their minds. Whether they are at home or not, day or night, their houses are always open.
After Louis Antoine Bougainville (A Voyage Around the World)

A five-year rotation system for dwellings prevents any long-lasting process of appropriation. No accumulation of goods is tolerated. This egalitarian society, foe of profit that it is, distributes everything it produces.
After Jean Malaurie, on Eskimos (The Last Kings of Thule)

If the truth be told, there’s not a lot to be produced. They devote just two hours a day to providing for all their needs. This society of plenty, in which meeting needs does not clash with rarity, does not know what overwork means.
After Marshall Sahlins (Stone Age Economics)

Furthermore, nobody is confined within any single round of activities. Everyone may train in the area of their choice; it’s society which governs general production, and permits people to do one thing one day, and another thing the next, to hunt of a morning, fish of an afternoon, tend to the livestock of an evening, and indulge in a little criticism after supper, as they feel like, without ever becoming a hunter, angler, herdsman or critic.
After Karl Marx (The German Ideology)

But before this state of things was reached, the organization of activity went through some years of trial and error, attributable to ancient superstitions. At first, they had in fact believed in the existence of a supreme being. In order to create humans, this being had drawn different tribes from the earth. To some he entrusted farming, to others hunting. A secondary deity then allegedly espied them, all forgotten about at the bottom of a hole, and managed to get them out of there; but because nothing remained for them, they were entitled to assume the sole function still available, which was to oppress and exploit the others.
After Claude Lévi-Strauss, on the Mbayá (Tristes tropiques)

They did this in the most peaceful way in the world. The only exercise they took was playing games which might excite and amuse them, but would never tire them out very much. If they ate too much (which happened frequently), servants were always at the ready to lend them a helping hand, and lavish different forms of care and treatment upon them, which stood in for the physical exercise which their masters could have indulged in. This care and treatment included a wonderful massage, with rubbing, stretching and movements which made the joints crack, all designed to get the body to experience total regeneration in the event of indigestion or fatigue. The fatter the chiefs grew, the more they needed this treatment. Their most usual position was a recumbent one on couches covered with fine mats, attended by a retinue entirely given over to their physical pleasure. Some retainers would fan them, shoo insects away, and hold spittoons; others would serve them food, give them massages, tend to their hair, and dress them. In a word, they could indulge either in extremely active pastimes or total idleness, in temperance or sensuality, as their pleasure dictated.
After James Jarves, on Polynesians (History of the Hawaiian or Sandwich Islands)

So they had experienced happiness by means of slavery. One day, however, a brilliant mind suggested that it be abolished in favour of a contractual principle, consisting in the exchange of a certain sum of money against a certain amount of labour. This ingenious system was founded on a quantification of labour based on time. So there was no longer any question of being sold, but rather of temporarily selling your labour. By mutual agreement, this contractual relationship seemed to make everyone a free person. The religion of work was born. After a while, they realized that dividing society between exploiters and exploited was not satisfactory. They duly invented a huge system of exploitation of everyone by everyone, including a collectivization of the tools of production. This proposal gave rise to a great burst of enthusiasm. Unfortunately, the scepticism of certain among them compromised the fulfilment of this project which called for everyone pulling together. Some suggested that the sceptics be silenced, but this solution was not applied. So they went temporarily back to the previous system. In due course they realized that what they called «growth» was the keystone of this system. As a result of growth, for want of equality, there was a guarantee that living conditions would undergo on-going improvements. All that was needed was to never stop producing and consuming. Needless to say, they ended up wearying of all this. Other institutions were reformed more quickly. The family, in particular, was the first institution to be abolished. Moreover, it was only ever regarded as a thoroughly provisional convenience involving gathering people together. This basic cell was lost in the group. Children have no family name. They are more children of a group than children of their parents. In return, the individual, thus protected, earmarks his strength and his mind for society. The goal of sexual promiscuity—in a somewhat procreative way—is to remedy the alienating effect that the couple may have for the various parties concerned. Each partner belongs to the group and it is a good thing —in a spirit of political unity—if the couple is split up from time to time.
After Jean Malaurie, on Eskimos (The Last Kings of Thule)

The educational system dispenses with any notion of merit, reward, punishment and emulation, and this in turn relieves the behaviour of future adults of those three pillars of industrial capitalism: material motivation, fear of being punished, and the competitive spirit.
After Robert Owen (Report to Lanark)

Children are removed from their parental home, with the result that there is no incest at all. They are carefully brought up, invariably under the keen eye of sound and honest teachers – so there is no rape either. Nor is there any infanticide. In fact, why would anyone want to be rid of their children, when they are never responsible for them, and when the only thing to be had from them is succour?
After D.A.F. de Sade (Aline and Valcour)

The incestuous fixation in parents, brothers and sisters was thus of no interest any more, and this in turn freed up the energy bound up in such fixations. As a result of this, natural genital needs rediscovered a natural life. What is more, genital inhibitions and anxiety were done away with, in such a way that everyone henceforth has an ability for complete orgasmic satisfaction. Because this ability for satisfaction has become equivalent to the intensity of impulses, moral rules and regulations have become futile, and that former mechanism of self-control is no longer necessary. Because energy has been withdrawn from anti-social impulses, there was not a great deal left that had to be controlled. The cleansed individual no longer had any morality in him, because he no longer had any impulses calling for moral inhibition. What there was left in terms of anti-social impulses became easily controllable, as soon as the basic genital needs were met. All this was clear to see in the attitude of the individual attaining orgasmic power. Relations with prostitutes had become impossible; sadistic fantasies had vanished. Expecting love as a right, or even raping a partner had become inconceivable, as had the very idea of seducing children; anal, exhibitionist and other forms of perversion faded away, and with them so did social anxiety and the guilt feelings that went hand-in-hand with them. In a word, all these phenomena pointed to the body’s ability to regulate itself.
After Wilhelm Reich (The Sexual Revolution)

Noses have been made to support glasses. Legs are introduced to be shod, stones have been shaped to be dressed, and build castles with, and pigs have been made to be eaten. Things cannot be any other way, for, because everything has been made to one end, everything is made to the best end.
After Voltaire (Pangloss in Candide or Optimism)