The Society for Technological Arts (SAT) can now welcome the public again in its restaurant as in the dome of the Satosphere, where the work is presented until February 26 -22.7°C by the French electronic composer Molécule, on images from Dirty Monitor. Further west, New City Gas, in collaboration with the Quebec agency Produkt and the American Artechouse, offers Intangible forms, the latest creation from Japanese digital artist Shohei Fujimoto. Two immersive experiences as different as they are fascinating.
Sighs of relief at the SAT, which had to close its doors in recent weeks and repeatedly postpone the broadcast of -22.7°C. This was originally scheduled to appear on the Satosphere dome in February 2020, recalls Pascal Pelletier, of Figure 55, a production company involved in this polar-inspired project.
At the beginning of 2017, the electronic composer Romain Delahaye (Molécule) left his Parisian home for the harsh and white lands of Greenland, in search of inspiration and sound material for his next album. Delahaye is used to inspiring expeditions: two years earlier, he stayed on a trawler to capture the sound environment recycled, reassembled, remixed on an album entitled 60°43′ North. This time he was fleeing the din of a diesel engine and rough seas, finding refuge in the silence of the snow and ice desert on the island’s east coast. It is, in a way, a work “about his own introspection, about what he felt, withdrawn into himself” during a month spent in this small coastal village, summarizes Pascal Pelletier.
The result is the album, ten compositions of an icy techno, aesthetically cousin of the German techno of the 1990s and 2000s, with its subtle borrowings from the dub that Delahaye explored in his debut, fifteen years ago. The experience has also inspired a short documentary, a book, a work in virtual reality, and now this immersive version, on computer-generated images created by the Belgian studio Dirty Monitor and adapted for 360° projections by the brains of the SAT.
With -22.7°C, we are moving away from the conceptual and avant-garde experiences that the Society is used to offering us, especially in its SAT Fest series. The music of Molécule is familiar, its sustained rhythm making you want to dance, while the digital illustration work of studio Dirty Monitor is mainly figurative. The first portion of the work (lasting 40 minutes) takes us from the Champs-Élysées to a large boulevard of ice and snow-capped mountains. The northern lights and the starry sky punctuate the decor that inspired the musician.
Fascinating beams
An equally immersive experience, but significantly more abstract and conceptually in-depth, on the side of New City Gas. Through seven works, Tokyo-based artist Shohei Fujimoto, trained in mathematics and physics, seeks to reveal matter in light. He uses it to create effects of depth and the illusion that it can be an object, even a living thing.
The masterpiece that gives the exhibition its title occupies almost the entire center of the 14,000 square foot space. More than 600 red laser beams point at the vault and form intertwining structures, like climbing the Golden Gate Bridge — we would almost want to grab one of these rods of lights if our guide had not asked us to respect the rules. Accompanied by a soundtrack composed by the Japanese musician Kyoka (Raster-Noton publishes its albums), the moving light architecture unfolds gracefully, sometimes abruptly by rapid reorganizations.
At one end of the room, the work Intangible #Umbra looks more modest with its 72 red laser modules, but at least as fascinating. The lasers also point towards the ceiling, but in front of a white canvas; the artist projects there the “shadows” that these luminous rods would have made if the light made them. The illusion of the materiality of light is successful.
The other five works, some playing with lasers (white, these), others with concepts illustrated on screens, occupy the side walls of New City Gas. All imagined for this same creative cycle, they refine the subject of the artist, who traveled to Montreal to supervise the installation of his exhibition presented here in Canadian premiere. Allow a good hour to go around and fully enjoy the experience.