[…] Deactivating them while preserving their symbolic significance: this is the treatment to which Tony Regazzoni subjects them. […] Consecrating them as idols of a former era is the vocation of the Musée des Anciennes Nouvelles Technologies (MANT – museum of former new technologies), which is devoted to the iconic artefacts of progress in telecoms. From its beginnings in 2018 the project develops a new iteration here with a series of long forgotten “made in France”* inventions reproduced in wood in 1:1 scale.

Behind each of the sculptures a poster reproduces the advertising codes of the period, replacing the yuppies of the 1980-1990s with people combatting the kinds of symbolic, social and economic structures […]. If a revolution is to take place, its vector is more likely to be political commitments than technological progress, which is revolutionary solely in its ability to maintain the established order revolving around its established orbit […].

Rendered totemic through their representation using artisanal techniques, the relics also gain in prestige. All along a mural inspired by a motif symbolising movement and speed, pyrographic engravings accompanied by everyday objects depict Citroën, Renault and Peugeot cars against a backdrop of the public sculptures that adorn France’s highways. […] The cars are reduced here to a utility and decorative level associated with the creative hobby of pyrography, a kind of “art for all” in the same way as the “highway art” judged to be “in poor taste” by bourgeois culture.

Extracts from the text by Sarah Ihler-Meyer.

* The Minitel and France Télécom’s “Bi-Bop” mobile phone.