On the short waves of our radios, voices read out uninterrupted series of numbers. 2… 11… 58… 35… 23… Whether they are encrypted instructions intended for sleeping agents, messages exchanged between traffickers, or simple telephone settings, the “Spy Numbers Stations” have been broadcasting for several decades without their precise function becoming known. In the wake of GAKONA, the previous exhibit inspired by the work of Nikola Tesla, SPY NUMBERS continues the exploration of the electromagnetic spectrum and its margins in this second session of 2009. Beyond the visible and closer still to the infra-thin and the spectral, the Palais de Tokyo experiments with forms of art that elude any wistful desire for fixed interpretations. SPY NUMBERS and this issue of the magazine PALAIS / bring together a variety of artists whose interests include mathematical encoding, the production of aurora borealis, archiving contact lenses, seismic sensors, the disappearance of hanged men, and mountain summits. An issue around the artists of the SPY NUMBERS show, with Dove Allouche & Évariste Richer, Pascal Broccolichi, Luca Francesconi, Ken Gonzales-Day, Norma Jeane, Arthur Mole & John Thomas, Matt O’dell, Felix Schramm, Jim Shaw, Tony Smith, Stéphane Vigny.

CONTENTS

ENIGMA Pascal Broccolichi LEXICON Matt O’dell MOBILE MIND CONTROL François Forme FROM THE TERRELLA TO THE BLACK AURORA
On the footsteps of Kristian Birkeland Louis Kaplan MOLE & THOMAS’S LIVING PHOTOGRAPHS Portfolio by Ken Gonzales-Day
WOUNDED ARTIFACTS PALAIS / GUIDE
Exhibition guide and a selection of books, music, movies, games and events around SPY NUMBERS