Zone*Interdite stems from the attempt to shape our own view of the world. In the visual arts it is natural to examine one’s conception of the world. And yet, instead of forming our own impressions, we discovered the limits of individual perception. We noted perceptual obstacles and gaps in the breadth of what we could imagine. Zone*Interdite is a project conceived to explore such perceptual obstacles.

It is forbidden to enter, depict or photograph military areas. At the same time, such depictions serve the armed forces as propaganda and a demonstration of power, as well as recruitment. Similar images are also used for criticizing the military and as counter-propaganda. On maps, military areas are seen as uncharted territories, thus constituting blind spots in our individual perception. As an art project, the main objective of Zone*Interdite is to investigate such perceptual obstacles and broaden the horizons of what we imagine—not only so as to experience the world more completely, but also ourselves.

Zone*Interdite reconstructs the terrain which has eluded our reflection on two different levels: LEVEL_01 is the Internet project www.zone-interdite.net/. This experimental set-up serves as a starting point for individual expeditions and as a place to collect one’s findings. By combining a search engine and an atlas, diverse sources come together to give a global military overview, one that ignores nations and power blocs.

LEVEL_02 reconstructs individual zones in an artificial, virtual 3D world. At present, Guantánamo Bay with its prison camps as well as an Islamic training camp in Sudan can be downloaded.