Stuck between a railroad and an old Jewish cemetery in the middle of a residential area for six years, a mysterious digital art museum has no sign to locate it…
Don’t look for it on Facebook or Instagram either. It is not there.
Even a Google search with his name, EISODE, turned up nothing.
Unless you type the exact address “eisode.art”, nothing appears.
Quebec visual artists of international reputation have been setting up their works there for the past six years, to the delight of a handful of well-informed visitors.
Anti-museum
Based in the borough of Ahuntsic, far from the usual artistic circuit, EISODE deliberately limits the number of visitors accepted per day.
“We want to avoid the way of the big museum where a crowd of people move among countless works,” co-founder Line Nault explains to me.
PHOTO MARTIN ALARIE
Manager Line Neault seated in front of the heart of the “computer” on display until February 23.
“With us, the visitor spends a lot of time with a single work of art without being disturbed by others and without the obligation to move on to the next one.”
EISODE requires its visitor (or a maximum group of four people) to reserve a one-hour visit slot via their site.
A code sent by phone unlocks the showroom… where there is no one!
End alone, the visitor then has the whole hour to get to know the work on display, unsupervised.
PHOTO MARTIN ALARIE
Camille Bernard-Gravel and Baron Lanteigne answered questions from the public.
“Some come here with their lunch and settle down. They take their time.”
It’s not free, but almost: $5 for the self-guided tour.
“There has never been any vandalism and 100% of people who book honor their appointment,” says Mme Nault.
For a guided experience with tea and explanations from Mme Nault is $20.
computer exploded
This place of distribution which does nothing like the others hardly presents banal works, as you can imagine.
Last fall, artist Émilie Payeur inserted acupuncture needles into mushroom mycelium to translate its electrical variations into sound waves, a way of making this plant dialogue audible.
Until February 23, a computer with functional but scattered components – a work by Baron Lanteigne and Camille Bernard-Gravel – confronts the visitor with its confusing and morbid aspect.
PHOTO MARTIN ALARIE
This computer with scattered components perched on cushions is indeed functional.
“I wanted to represent human flesh that conforms to the machine, that bends to its will, rather than the opposite,” sums up the sculptor Ms. Bernard-Gravel.
“The animation I programmed details little by little and ends up showing more and more organic forms,” says digital artist Baron Lanteigne.
The artists designed The Computer expressly for the hidden museum where the viewer has one hour to observe it.
Hush!
Eisode does not organize a vernissage for its new exhibitions, but rather “dismantling” where the public can watch the dismantling of the works once the exhibition is over.
Now that you know about the existence of this museum, hush! Don’t spread the secret.