THE SUTHERLAND TEST | Adelin Schweitzer _FR

French artist and performer Adelin Schweitzer, a key figure in contemporary art linked to immersive technologies, arrives at L.E.V. Matadero 2025 with The Sutherland test, one of his most renowned proposals to date. A performance that breaks with the conventions of Extended Reality (ER) to enter an unknown territory, where “seeing less” can mean “perceiving more.”

At the center of this unsettling installation is the BUD, a custom-designed helmet that suppresses vision. Through a sensory deprivation protocol, participants are guided into an altered perception, freed from the dominance of the visual. The session, presented as a mysterious technological demonstration, is led by the enigmatic collective VESM, whose practices question the contemporary cult of the image and digital saturation.

This work unfolds as a liminal, uncomfortable and revealing experience, where speculative narrative intertwines with technological critique in a performance that destabilizes the viewer from within.

With more than twenty works presented on international platforms such as Ars Electronica, SAT Montréal, ARCO Madrid, or the Chroniques Biennial, Adelin Schweitzer has established himself as one of the most incisive creators in the RX scene. His artistic practice, developed in collaboration with the Marseille studioles laboratoires deletere, subverts the promises of technological innovation to create authentic manuals of self-defense in the face of a hyper-technologized world.