SIGHT+SOUND International Digital Art Festival | A 12th edition around the pandemic

The Eastern Bloc art center, which combines art, science and technology, is organizing its 12^e edition of the SIGHT+SOUND festival, entitled Dancing while waiting (the end of the world). Curated by Sarah Ève Tousignant and Nathalie Bachand, the exhibition hosts, until November 12, works by a dozen international artists. Nine performances are also presented. All related to the theme of the pandemic…

Eric Clement
The Press

Sarah Ève Tousignant and Nathalie Bachand were chosen by an Eastern Bloc jury. Friends in life, they lived through part of the pandemic together. “The idea for the exhibition germinated by thinking of what made us feel good despite everything that was happening,” explains Sarah Ève Tousignant.

“We noticed that the idea of ​​connection had been lost,” adds Nathalie Bachand. The expo was then postponed. This is the reason why the theme is finally a kind of reality between the festive aspect and the critical side. »

So there is a bit of levity in this 12^e edition, but also quite serious, which does not prevent poetry from emerging. In total, around thirty artists take part in the two sections. International artists whom the curators know or whose works they have seen exhibited elsewhere, particularly in Europe.

The exhibition takes place on the ground floor of 55, Louvain, in the Chabanel district, where the Eastern Bloc gallery is located. An installation by Max Lester consists of works hung on the walls and on scaffolding. For Behind These Strange Sensations are Hidden Structures, the Montreal-based Toronto artist is interested in the political and economic control systems that regulate our habitats. A somewhat nebulous work which perhaps testifies to the pandemic disorder.

Next door, Marie-Ève ​​Levasseur proposes the installation calling upon the digital touch, which includes an augmented reality component allowing to see ghostly images. The work was produced during the pandemic in Leipzig, while she was in residence there. We haven’t seen it in “action”.

There is also a virtual reality work by the Swiss Elisa Gleize and Thomas Lopez, ROSS 128 (exoparty). An interactive experience with “aliens” who invite you to participate in a “trans-species” party! And video works by S4RA (Sandra Araújo, who loves video games), the Swiss Johanna Bruckner, the Americans Lanéya Billingsley (aka Billie0cean) and Faith Holland, the French Raphaël Moreira Gonçalves and the Quebecers Steven Sych and Santiago Tamayo Soler.

Finally, Pascale Leblanc-Lavigne, whose work we saw at Underground Art in 2021, presents a kinetic and sound installation that evokes office work… or its absence during a pandemic. The artist from Quebec made Death in the office during a residency at the Sporobole center in Sherbrooke. An evocation of an office that rebels, choosing autonomy! With objects (garbage can, microwave oven, coffee cup) that start working on their own. “And the screen located under the desk will retransmit in real time part of his exhibition at Sporobole with, there too, kinetic elements”, specifies Nathalie Bachand.

Performance

The performances are organized from Thursday to Saturday, in the city center, at the White Wall Studio workshop (4532, avenue Laval) and at the WIP space, at 3487, boulevard Saint-Laurent. With good stock. It will start at WIP, Thursday, 8 p.m., with Sabrina Ratté who will present Other Spacesa 35-minute performance combining electronic sound and video art, produced with his electronic music collaborator, composer Roger Tellier-Craig.

These will be revisited existing works and unpublished material, with reverie and this ambiguity that permeates Sabrina Ratté’s projects. Other Spaces was presented last spring at the Gaîté Lyrique, where she exhibits her works in the spaces of the Parisian cultural institution.

The other performances will be signed Rehab Hazgui, Tunisian transdisciplinary artist, les Québécois she. phase & Golpesar, Fumerolles, Hazy Montagne Mystique & Pulsatilla & Guillaume Vallée, as well as Chloe Alexandra Thompson & Brenna Murphy, MSHR, Berliner Florence To and New Yorkers Victoria Keddie & Rose Kallal. Finally, for the opening of the exhibition, Wednesday, from 6 p.m., a performance by David Szanto will be presented with floral installations by Maxime Giroux and a DJ set by Saudade (Nela Paki and Marilou Lyonnais Archambault). “It will start more contemplative and it will end more burst! “says Sarah Ève Tousignant.