Mutek, Digital Village | An open-plan gallery

From August 15 to 29, MUTEK is transforming the Quartier des spectacles into a veritable exhibition worthy of an art gallery with the new Village numérique project. An invitation to come explore downtown Montreal, for free.

On both sides of the Quartier des spectacles

No fewer than 23 digital art installations by Quebec artists and studios will take place both outside and inside the various spaces of the Quartier des spectacles. Some selected locations will even introduce the public to unusual places, such as the Cœur des sciences at UQAM or the Claude-Léveillée room in Place des Arts.

Meetings along the way

If the installations are quite spaced apart, it is almost impossible to get lost or to pass by a work without seeing it: MUTEK has created very effective signage that guides visitors’ strolls. Because, in fact, it is about exploring the route in a free way, by serendipity, and discovering creations without order or linear direction. The projects are experienced during the day, but they reach, for the most part, their full potential when night falls, since many of them integrate light or light beams.

Multiple interactive experiences

Wall projections, virtual realities, immersive installations, etc. In this case, the event offers several forms of interactivity that digital art offers: moving screens, where visitors are more passive, up to the activation of the project by wandering or even by body movements or concrete manipulations.

At the Heart of UQAM Sciences

Martin Messier propose Cycles (2024), a string choreography that mixes robotics, light and sound. The installation is also an instrument that calls for listening: the sound of the engines adds noise to the pre-existing music. It was a long-term project for the artist. “It has been the crux of our lives for four years,” he says.

On the floor of the Quartier des spectacles

Black Hole Experience (BHX) by Age of Union, a mobile installation in a 53-foot shipping container, does not go unnoticed. It quickly invites you to enter and immerses visitors who find themselves propelled into the heart of a black hole. In front, Daily tous les jours offers, in a Canadian premiere, two sound sculptures, Duetti: Musical Furniture. The multisensory work requires interaction between two or more people to reach its full potential and create music. We will take the opportunity to go to the container in which is located Inflorescences by Sabrina Ratté, an internationally renowned artist who has already presented her work at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal and at the Arsenal. For the occasion, Sabrina Ratté is taking the creation out of the museum and adapting it to the context of the Digital Village.

Inside the Place des Arts

Anyone who walks past Redshift LP Rondeau can modify the visual of immersive screens and integrate his image which is deformed. We must not forget, then, to go and buy a virtual space in the digital cemetery of Digi-Deuil Distributionproduced by aenl. For a fee of 25 cents, visitors can purchase an epitaph and “bury” a file of their choice in it. A fun way to raise awareness of digital death and the traces we leave in the virtual world.

A meeting of art and industry

Whether it’s a bike ride (Isotone, BunBun and Karl Skene), the exploration of the plant universe (Isochrone Or Cinzia Campolese) or dance (Mirari or Nora Gibson), the Digital Village creates a mix between independent artists who usually present their works in museum spaces and studios from the industry. “Historically, these are two different worlds that are separated for different reasons. Increasingly, the boundaries are blurring,” explains Sarah Ève Tousignant, head of programming at the Digital Village.

Democratizing digital art

The Digital Village hopes to democratize digital art and make it known to everyone. And the bet is on: the event is in its first edition, but the team already plans to use this year as a springboard for those to come. “We hope this will be a recurring project,” for Mikaël Frascadore, executive producer. “It’s a new step and we hope it will become outside the festival, it’s a project in itself that runs in parallel,” for Sarah Ève Tousignant.

MUTEK Digital Village, presented at the Quartier des spectacles until August 29

Visit the event website