Transmission Balkan is a light installation housed within the space of the Bioskop Balkan cinema, created by French artist Yann Toma. As the founder and director of the artistic company Ouest-Lumière, Yann Toma develops the concept of Artistic Energy (Énergie Artistique – EA), merging art with energetic and perceptual flows. His work is inspired by the innovative legacy of Nikola Tesla, whose ideas on energy and intuition play a significant role in the artist’s reflections on the world.
He also engages with issues of climate change and energy, actively participating in processes of research and self-positioning, using his own body as an instrument of sensitive contact. Since 1991, he has reactivated the former power company Ouest-Lumière to create a symbolic network dedicated to the production and dissemination of artistic energy. His practice includes connecting with the hidden and explicit sensory layers that the audience can feel but often loses sight of due to perceptual and societal conditioning — particularly the inability to recognize the complex natural flows that shape our relationship with the environment.
Toma is also the co-founder of the Maximalist movement, and a doctoral professor at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, where he leads the research group Art & Flux at the CNRS (French National Center for Scientific Research).
His practice is known for its social engagement, collaboration with institutions such as the United Nations, and projects dealing with climate change, collective memory, and the ethics of art. The artist has exhibited multiple times at prestigious venues such as the Grand Palais, the Eiffel Tower, and the Forbidden City in Beijing, and his work is part of collections in museums such as the Centre Pompidou and FNAC. He has also been awarded the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre de la Légion d’Honneur. His participatory exhibition Dynamo-Fukushima at the Grand Palais (September 2011) attracted over 17,000 visitors in just two days. In 2015, his monumental and participatory installation Human Energy, presented at the Eiffel Tower, was powered by human energy during the second week of the COP 21 Climate Conference.
The immersive setup at Bioskop Balkan consists of three interconnected elements, each bearing a deep philosophical message embodied through light. The installation explores light as a medium for transmitting ideas and provoking thought about key societal values. By using light as a channel for meaning, Toma draws attention to the interplay between the visible and the invisible, the tangible and the abstract. The installation creates a dialogue between the context of human somatic beliefs and the viewer, inviting them to engage with the layered complexity of the work on both intellectual and emotional levels.
TOLÉRANCE – Tolerance
Through this element, the artist addresses tolerance as a political and metaphysical concept. By transmitting the word “TOLÉRANCE” through light impulses in Morse code, the artist calls for understanding and acceptance, transcending the boundaries of thought and action. This light-based communication encourages the observer to reflect on the importance of accepting perspectives different from their own. In the artist’s vision, this transmission engages with both meanings of the term — political (relating to the organization of society, laws, morals, and the ability to coexist) and metaphysical (defined as the search for origin and root causes of phenomena, modes of thought, and behavior). Such tolerance knows no bounds in understanding and acceptance.
PARTAGE – Sharing
The second element of the installation emphasizes the importance of sharing in building collective reflection and mutual growth. Sharing, in this context, is not merely about passing along information; it involves engaging with the experiences, perspectives, and struggles of others, while simultaneously contributing one’s own to the communal discourse. This component highlights the act of sharing as a fundamental part of democracy, where mutual engagement leads to deeper understanding and the creation of shared resources for the benefit of all.
JATON – Nothing
The final element deals with the concept of nothingness, exploring the idea that nothing is the fundamental basis of all existence. According to the artist, nothing is what precedes everything: an infinite chaos that comes before and makes possible every limit, every form, every word. In that sense, nothing is everything, as it is the authentic and original foundation of all things in the world — the primordial unity of being and void, which must arise from the same origin to be equally possible. At the bottom, all returns to the same, and this same, enriched with all other equally possible things, is nothing. There are four forms of nothingness, as there are four main paths to the totality of possible outcomes: to be, not to be, to be and not to be, or neither to be nor not to be. These four fantastical nothings are: void, world, and reality.
Transmission en Ouest-Lumière places individual thoughts into perspective, embodied in a fragment of light and its infinite repetition. By transmitting meaning and expanding it from the “inhabited” space of Bioskop Balkan, the artist calls for respect for human rights and democracy, and encourages reflection on how light and meaning translate into our understanding of society, democracy, and the human condition.