The Meaning of Life is an artistic work in which a laser display projects eleven texts generated by artificial intelligence. These texts attempt to answer our most fundamental questions: the meaning of life, happiness, consciousness, mortality, infinity, God…

Like philosophy, AI offers no fixed truth. Its answers evolve with each update (GPT-4, GPT-5, GPT-6…), shaped by its time, its data, and its own technical capacities. What AI asserts today may be contradicted tomorrow. It becomes a metaphor for the human quest for meaning: unstable, infinite, in perpetual recomposition.

The Meaning of Life follows in the tradition of Conceptual Art. Here, meaning is neither given nor permanent. It emerges from the moment and the perception of each viewer. The work enters into dialogue with “One and Three Chairs” by Joseph Kosuth, which questions the very nature of knowledge, and “Today” by On Kawara, where time becomes both subject and material.

The meaning of life has been a subject of great debate and contemplation among philosophers for centuries. It is a complex and deeply personal inquiry, with no single answer universally applicable to all individuals. As we stand at the crossroads of accelerating technology, environmental uncertainty, and shifting societal values, the question remains as urgent as ever.

Martin Heidegger, in “Being and Time”, argued that human existence (“Dasein”) is defined by its relationship to time and mortality. He stated, “To exist is to be thrown into the world with a responsibility to shape one’s being”.  In this sense, life’s meaning emerges not from a fixed purpose but from the awareness of our finitude, the necessity to create significance through authentic engagement with the world.

Similarly, Hannah Arendt, reflecting on human action and the nature of freedom, emphasized the importance of participation in the world. She wrote, “The world and the people who inhabit it make sense only if action, and not mere behavior, remains its defining feature”. For Arendt, meaning is found not in passive existence but in active engagement with others, in creating, speaking, and shaping the political and cultural landscapes around us.

Le sens de la vie est depuis des siècles un sujet de débat et de contemplation parmi les philosophes. Il s’agit d’une question complexe et profondément personnelle, sans réponse unique applicable universellement à tous les individus. Alors que nous nous trouvons à la croisée des chemins entre l’accélération technologique, l’incertitude environnementale et l’évolution des valeurs sociétales, cette question demeure plus pressante que jamais.

Martin Heidegger, dans “Être et Temps”, soutenait que l’existence humaine (“Dasein”) est définie par sa relation au temps et à la mortalité. Il affirmait : « Exister, c’est être jeté dans le monde avec la responsabilité de façonner son être ». En ce sens, le sens de la vie n’émerge pas d’un but fixe, mais de la conscience de notre finitude,  de la nécessité de créer une signification à travers un engagement authentique avec le monde.

De même, Hannah Arendt, en réfléchissant sur l’action humaine et la nature de la liberté, soulignait l’importance de la participation au monde. Elle écrivait : « Le monde et les êtres qui l’habitent n’ont de sens que si l’action, et non le simple comportement, en reste la caractéristique essentielle ».  Pour Arendt, le sens ne réside pas dans une existence passive mais dans un engagement actif avec autrui, dans la création, la parole et la transformation des paysages politiques et culturels qui nous entourent.