Through his new exhibition The Unplayed Notes Factory curated by Nicolas Bourriaud, the artist Loris Gréaud brings back to life the factory of Campiello della Pescheria, an old glass furnace settled on the Murano island and closed for more than 60 years, for the seven months duration of the 57th Venice Biennale.

On this occasion, the former glass furnace will be secretly revived and will play host to a whole new trade: an unofficial production line which is thought to conceal the mysterious vitrification of hourglass' sand, with an almost alchemical ambition to crystallize time...

The Unplayed Notes Factory therefore invites visitors to venture out to the island of Murano to discover the awakening of this factory which has been turned into a true "tableau vivant". Shaken by a strange choreography, the factory's history takes shape again and rambles at the rate of ovens burning, glass volumes turning solid and breaking, smokescreens evaporating, outlines whose glow sometimes echoes the flare of certain vanities. Temporarily reactivated, the factory dreams - dreams that sometimes turn into nightmares - and drifts before going out eternally.

Deliberately running counter to the frantic pace and excitement of the Biennale (which offers readings "on the double" most of the time), The Unplayed Notes Factory is a work which requires visitors to deploy all of theirs talents as explorers. Immersive, productive and performative, The Unplayed Notes Factory slowly rises from the waves to outline, on the lagoon's horizon, the shadow of a ghost ship in which time and space seem to merge. 


The Unplayed Notes (2012-2017) is the title given to a series of projects designed by Loris Gréaud. Whether they be architectural environments in gallery spaces; the investment of an institution momentarily hosting a substitute ‘’supernatural History’’ Museum whose official opening leads to a destructive performance subsequently producing a contemporary virus; or an obscure production line whose purpose is to form a true "tableau vivant". The Unplayed Notes doesn’t aim to connect places and backgrounds but instead tries to highlight the space that lies between art works, in order to display a spectrum of intents, narratives, whose trajectory and linking path create a whole new experience. Defying description and categorisation, The Unplayed Notes keeps questioning the art space and brings to light the porosity which remains between reality and fiction.
After 5 years of developments and carefully orchestrated experiments, the project draws its last breath and closes off with the awakening of an alchemical factory which seems to be stuck within a strange space-time.

The book The Unplayed Notes (2012-2017): The Forbidden Book, which will be published in September 2017, will consequently become its final movement: an attempt to put together within one catalogue, one binding, this series of expansions and drifts.