People on the Fly

People on the Fly Concept

For a large scale screen we developed a participatory public artwork where passers-by can see themselves and also be turned into a swarm of flies. A specially developed software detects all moving persons and communicates their data to artificial programmes insects.

When a person moves, within seconds hundreds of flies invade his or her body, but when he or she stands still, the insects fly away. The resulting image scenarios are in constant flux, they construct and deconstruct, and people become visible and disappear again within a swarm of insects.

People on the Fly celebrates the ephemeral moment and the hustle and bustle of everyday life, where only standing still for a short moment makes one see one's own image clearly.

People on the Fly Exhibitions

2024 The Artwork as a Living System at the Azkuna Zentroa, Bilbao (February 7th until  May 26th, 2024)
Retrospective exhibition Christa Sommerer & Laurent Mignonneau
Curators: Karin Ohlenschläger
Featuring "Interactive Plant Growing", "A-Volve", "Phototropy", "Life Writer", "Mobile Feelings II", "Portrait on the Fly", "Haze Express", "Eau de Jardin", "People on the Fly", "Fly Plotter Portraits", "Digital Fly Portraits", "Scavengers", "The Value of Art", "Fly Objects", "Ar(t)chive", and "ToBee"
Co-production in collaboration with the ZKM, Karlsruhe (DE) and the OÖ Landes-Kultur, Linz (AT)
- Bilbao, Spain

2023 Endless Variations/En d'infinies variations (December 7, 2023 — April 19, 2024)
At the Centre Culturel Canadien, Paris
Like a studio where works are in the making, Endless Variations explores new creative processes in the age of artificial intelligence.
We show our interactive work "People on the Fly".
Guest curators: Dominique Moulon, Alain Thibault
Associeted curator: Catherine Bédard
Artistes: Nicolas Baier - Salomé Chatriot - Chun Hua Catherine Dong - George Legrady - Caroline Monnet - Oli Sorenson - Nicolas Sassoon - Christa Sommerer & Laurent Mignonneau - Timothy Thomasson
- Paris, France

2023 The Artwork as a Living System at iMAL Brussels (from April 14th to Sept 24th 2023)
Retrospective exhibition Christa Sommerer & Laurent Mignonneau
Curators: Karin Ohlenschläger
Featuring "Interactive Plant Growing", "A-Volve", "Phototropy", "Life Writer", "Mobile Feelings II", "Portrait on the Fly", "Haze Express", "Eau de Jardin", "People on the Fly", "Fly Plotter Portraits", "Digital Fly Portraits", "Scavengers", "The Value of Art", "Fly Objects", "Ar(t)chive", and "ToBee"
Co-production in collaboration with the ZKM, Karlsruhe (DE) and the OÖ Landes-Kultur, Linz (AT)
- Brussels, Belgium

2022 OK Zentrum Linz "The Artwork as a Living System" (2nd Sept 2022 - 26th Feb 2023)
Retrospective exhibition
Curators: Alfred Weidinger and Genoveva Rückert-Sommerauer
Featuring "Interactive Plant Growing", "A-Volve", "Phototropy", "Life Writer", "Life Spacies II", "Mobile Feelings II", "Portrait on the Fly", "Haze Express", "Eau de Jardin", "People on the Fly", "Fly Plotter Portraits", "Digital Fly Portraits", "Scavengers", "The Value of Art", "Fly Objects", "Anthroposcope", "Antopolis", "Ar(t)chive", and "ToBee".
- Linz, Austria

2022 ZKM Retrospective "The Artwork as a Living System" (07.May.2022 – 31.July.2022)
(video trailer) (STIR World article)
Retrospective exhibition
Curated by Peter Weibel (Cuator), Jessica Menger (Co-Curator), Philipp Ziegler (Co-Curator). Nina Liechti (Curatorial Assistance)
The interactive installations in the exhibition tell the story of almost 30 years of artistic work by the Austrian-French artist duo Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau.
Based on an idea of Karin Ohlenschläger.
The exhibition is a co-production of ZKM | Karlsruhe, OÖ Landes-Kultur GmbH, Linz and iMal, Brussels. The exhibition is accompanied by a scholarly publication in English edited by Karin Ohlenschläger, Peter Weibel and Alfred Weidinger in the Leonardo Book Series in collaboration with MIT Press.
Featuring "Interactive Plant Growing", "A-Volve", "Phototropy", "Life Writer", "Life Spacies II", "Mobile Feelings II", "Portrait on the Fly", "Haze Express", "Eau de Jardin", "People on the Fly", "Fly Plotter Portraits", "Digital Fly Portraits", "Scavengers", "The Value of Art", "Fly Objects", "Ar(t)chive", and "ToBee".
- Karlsruhe, Germany

2022 Deji Art Museum
    "In the Line of Flight, for Possible Worlds" (2022.07.21 - 2022.11.06)
    curator: Zhang Ga
    featuring: People on the Fly
With the participation of: ZHANG Peili, Jakob Kudsk Steensen, ZHOU Xiaohu, Alex Da Corte and Jayson Musson, LIN Ke, LU Yang, Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau, Pierre Huyghe, Hito Steyerl, Dorian Gaudin and Zachary White and Tomás Saraceno
- Nanjing, China

2019 Museum Sinclair-Haus
Exhibition: "FLÜGELSCHLAG Insekten in der zeitgenössischen Kunst"
7th July until 13th of October 2019
- Bad Homburg, Germany

2019 Thoma Art Foundation
Collection Acquisition of "People on the Fly"
Exhibiting at the Art House Santa Fe
June 2019
- Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA

2019 Art Rock Festival
June 4 - 16, 2019
Featuring "People on the Fly"
- Saint Brieux, France

2016 Galerie Charlot (14th June - 27th July)
- Paris, France

2016 K11 media facade (20th May- 4th July)
Electronic Vibes Exhibition
Curator: Caroline Ha Thuc
Art Project Officer: Stephanie Hsieh Ming Hsiu
- Hong Kong, China