Entering the art gallery holding my smartphone upright, finding the perfect angle to observe the pieces through my camera is not how I expected to look at art. As I inched slowly towards an exhibit titled Pool Party or Aquanouba in French, a piece of mysterious music began to play from my phone, followed by shapes blinking, sliding and swaying on screen. The sudden disappearances and reappearances of shapes presented the visitor an opportunity to don the role of a seeker in this hide-and-seek game/art. The intricately designed poster featured listed objects such as a map, a coin, and a golden ticket, among others. 

The steps remain consistent as we move from one artwork to another created by French artist and graphic designer Aurélien Jeanney. His pieces feature recurring characters represented by geometric shapes, exploring diverse themes, ranging from a Hindu temple inspired by his earlier experiences in India to catacombs . The objective of this experience is to spot all the 12 hidden items in the list across the ten posters on display. Towards this end, visitors scan the art pieces using a mobile app designed by Jeanney himself, which utilises augmented reality(AR) technology. AR combines a user’s real-life environment with computer-generated content to create interactive experiences. The AR exhibition titled Looki Look, was officially inaugurated by the artist on November 20 at Alliance Française de Trivandrum, Vazhuthacaud.

Hindu Temple artwork by Aurélien Jeanney. The artwork needs to be scanned with an app and observed | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Looki Look is currently on at Alliance Française cultural centres across the country as part of their Digital November Festival. The exhibition is inspired by a “look and find game” like Where’s Waldo, a British series of children’s puzzle books. The objective of the game is to find a specific character from a crowd.

“The idea was to make it accessible to kids, parents and very old people so that everyone can have fun with it,” says Aurélien. 

With over 16 years of experience as an artist, Aurélien is an art director and multidisciplinary artist specialising in augmented reality experiences through digital illustration. He has won multiple international accolades such as the Grafika Award for design, Numix award and Cannes Lions award. He founded Maison Tangible, a publishing house and gallery in 2015, and has worked on projects such as building murals, children’s books, an AR treasure hunt and a poster for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup held in France, among others. 

Aurélien Jeanney’s poster for 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup held in France | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Aurélien, who has been fascinated by AR since the beginning of his career, says his interest is “linked to my path as an artist.” He says, “I started my career as a graphic designer, and later I learnt motion design. When I decided to combine motion with tangible elements of art, AR seemed to be the best way to do it.” 

Early beginnings 

“Coming from a poor family, my dad was a hard worker in a factory and was very sick all the time. He didn’t understand how I could do illustrations for a living at all,” says the artist, who completed his art degree from the Higher Institute of Fine Arts of Besançon, France. As far as Aurélien can recollect, he used to draw all the time. “I wanted to imitate Asterix and other comic books. It was a passion, and I wanted to draw exactly like how I saw them in the comics,” he remembers. 

The artist says, “Having worked as a freelancer for 16 years, I don’t feel that I am working. I am always building things. I see my work as playing with Lego bricks. I am building geometric shapes, and I assemble them into one thing which leads to another, and it goes on like that.” 

Beta testing 

In 2023, Aurélien Jeanney toured India with an AR exhibition called Midi Minuit, curating the works of 11 French artists. As the exhibition was a success, Alliance Francaise invited Aurélien to present another show, this time featuring his own works. “At that time, I had a lot of projects in rough draft, and Looki Look was one of them. The goal was the exhibition, and I had ten months to do it,” he says. 

The exhibition currently consists of ten works, including two based on his experiences in India. “There’s a poster of a flower market inspired by the one I saw in Bengaluru and the Hindu temple, which is a mix of every temple I came across during my trip. I was there in the flower market during Deepavali, it was like an explosion of colours and fragrance; flowers everywhere.” Other themes include art school, fun fair, cinema city and so on.

Flower market exhibit by Aurélien Jeanney at Looki Look AR exhibition inspired by the artist’s experience in Bengaluru. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Aurélien says the exhibition is currently in a beta stage and he wants to expand it with more posters adding hidden objects after workshops and tests with children and adults. The artist wants to develop this AR experience into a board game. He says, “My wish for Looki Look is to build a cardboard game so that everyone can play it at home with their family, kids and friends.” 

Visitors observing the exhibits | Photo Credit: Nainu Oommen

He adds, “I also want to strike the right balance in the difficulty of finding the hidden objects within the posters. The idea is that if I go to a new country for an exhibition, I will make a poster for that location. I am lucky enough to have been invited to Estonia after India. I will design another poster for Estonia as well. My dream right now is to create enough posters so that I can have 10 posters just for that country.” 

Looki Look exhibition is on at Alliance Française de Trivandrum, Vazhuthacaud, till December 18.