Al Asnaam: A People Participating Seismometer

With an introduction by the artist and an essay by Jean-François Renaud, this short publication concentrates on Juan Geuer's seminal installation at the Ottawa Art Gallery. Titled after a 1980 earthquake in El Asnam, Algeria, the permanent installation is inspired by Geuer’s lifelong interest in the workings of the earth. The movement of a beam of red light emitted by a laser across the exhibition space walls, reflected by the gentle swinging of mirrors and a chrome-plated cylinder, registers disturbances caused by the viewer's presence and by motions of unknown, and presumably microseismic, origin.