Molior presents New environments: approaching the untouchableua unique and captivating virtual reality exhibition across Quebec
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n tour in Val-d’Or, Chicoutimi, Gatineau, Quebec, Sherbrooke and Carleton-sur-Mer © Rémi Hermoso Montreal, November 19, 2024 – Betteran organization specializing in the production of exhibitions and artistic projects, is proud to announce the Quebec tour of its virtual reality exhibition, New environments: approaching the untouchable. This poetic experience on the fragility of nature will be hosted in six cities in Quebec – Val-d’Or, Chicoutimi, Gatineau, Quebec, Sherbrooke and Carleton-sur-Mer – from December 2024 to March 2026thanks to an exceptional collaboration with six presenters across the province (VoArt, Bang center, Daïmôn, Productions Recto-Verso, Sporobole and Vaste et Vague artist center).
Currently presented in Marseille as part of the CHRONIQUES – Biennale des Imaginaires Numériques event, New environments: approaching the untouchablee is a unique invitation to interact, to marvel and to think differently about our impact and our connections with nature. “After more than 20 years of presenting artists mainly internationally, we at Molior are delighted to organize this first tour of an exhibition across Quebec. New Environments: Approaching the Untouchable is unique in that it is produced entirely in virtual reality. This is a superb opportunity for the Quebec public to be in contact with visual and digital art works by local artists recognized around the world. » [Aurélie Besson, directrice générale et artistique de Molior]
THE EXHIBITION NEW ENVIRONMENTS: APPROACHING THE UNTOUCHABLE
Produced in 2023 by Molior, New environments: approaching the untouchablefrom the commissioner Nathalie Bachand, brings together seven leading artists from Quebec: Baron Lanteigne, Caroline Gagné, François Quévillon, Olivia McGilchrist, the duo Laurent Lévesque and Olivier Henleyas well as Sabrina Ratté. Three of the six virtual reality works that make it up were produced by Molior especially for the occasion.
Once equipped with their VR headset, visitors immerse themselves in a surreal universe, where six distinct portals stand around them. They are invited to enter each portal, in the order of their choice, in order to discover the six works presented.
Through the digital prism, the exhibition offers a poetic perspective on the fragility of nature. By representing it in an entirely dematerialized form, it highlights the processes of degradation with which it is confronted and invites the viewer to reflect on the issues of its preservation.
« With the works of New Environments, the artists offer us points of contact with worlds that transcend reality and materiality – these are multiple perspectives that open up on our ecosystems and so many invitations to revisit our interaction reflexes with the natural environment. » [Nathalie Bachand, commissaire]
After its success in Montreal where it sold out in just two weeks, New environments: approaching the untouchable is held in parallel in Marseille, until January 19, 2025as part of a Quebec showcase presented in collaboration with CHRONIQUES – Biennale des Imaginaires Numériques, a major event in the field of digital arts in France.
DATES AND LOCATIONS OF THE QUEBEC TOUR
In addition to the virtual experience, several installations and video works by the same artists will be on display in some of these locations.
Exact details will be clarified for each location as time goes on. THE ARTISTS OF THE EXHIBITION Baron Lanteigne, Ascension Caroline Gagne, Autofading_Disappear
Baron Lanteigne
Artist from Quebec whose creations travel the planet, Baron Lanteigne offers Ascension (2022). The virtual reality work invites visitors to explore a digital landscape where rising and falling liquid refracts light, creating an immersive experience. Manipulated by a flow of data exchanged between connected devices, this moving substance embodies omniconnection, while questioning our perception of space and nature. Installation Cinematography of virtual matter (2023), a set of screens that act as portals revealing light refraction effects that distort the generative visual environment, is also presented in the exhibition space and explores the same phenomenon.
Caroline Gagne
A very active interdisciplinary artist engaged in her environment, Caroline Gagné created her very first work in virtual reality to question the presence of human beings in their environment. Autofading_Disappear (2020) immerses the viewer in a forest generated in “cloud points”, where the environment reacts to their movements and their level of attention. The slower his gestures, the more the sound and visual details emerge, while a too abrupt human presence triggers a storm, gradually erasing the elements of the landscape. Untitled (artifacts) (2020-2023) presents itself as the material extension ofAutofading_Disappeare, with a synthetic rock as the central element – which is also at the heart of RV’s work. The installation allows you to hear a sound composition linked to a video sequence – from the virtual work – broadcast via the screen of a cell phone, visible nearby.
François Quévillon, Erosions 2
Olivia McGilchrist, Virtual ISLANDs
François Quévillon
Exploring for more than 20 years the phenomena of the natural world and perception thanks to different technological devices, François Quévillon invites spectators to discover the coastline of the river and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence with Erosions 2 (2022), playing on the disorientation and disembodiment effects of virtual reality. The resulting visual and sound distortions, evoking geomorphological transformation, ensure that the work amplifies the sensation of immateriality and instability of natural spaces. For its part, the body of videographic works Meteors (
Olivia McGilchrist
Created by French-Jamaican multimedia artist Blanche Olivia McGilchristVirtual ISLANDs (2022) explores the relationship between virtual immersion and physical submersion in VR, offering audiovisual interpretations of the ebb and flow of water, symbolizing the fluidity of the artist’s hybrid identities. Viewers are invited to navigate an aquatic scene where artist Keely Whitelaw’s choreographed movements, rendered in particles, interact with a wave submerging the virtual space. Video works From Many Sides (2016) et MYRa: a gift for Rym (2019), meanwhile, sift through layers of inherited histories and highlight the complex relationship between the Caribbean landscape and water as an element, from geographic dependence to environmental precarity.
Laurent Lévesque and Olivier Henley,
The Conservatory: another horizon
Sabrina Ratté, Flowers
Laurent Lévesque and Olivier Henley
Since 2017, Laurent Lévesque and Olivier Henley have worked as a duo to develop The Conservatory: another horizon (2017-2022). The VR work invites the public to explore a digital forest made up of plants from “first-person shooter” video games created between 1998 and 2017. Accompanied by a repertoire of 270 virtual species, it highlights the fragility of this digital universe, echoing the vulnerability of natural ecosystems in the face of environmental disasters. Laurent Lévesque also signs two works presented in the physical space of the gallery. The Conservatory: bouquet for Maxime (2017-2023) is a print representing a floral assemblage from plants collected from video games. Self 1 (2023) is a mirror engraved with a gray and white checkerboard pattern that refers to the “digital void” – usually associated with Photoshop software. The work notably questions the effect produced by the digital universe on our perception of identity.
Sabrina Ratté
Internationally renowned artist living in Montreal, Sabrina Ratté continues with Flowers (2021) its exploration of the “materiality” of digital technology by creating a virtual sublime that challenges our relationship to reality. Inspired by Donna Haraway, Greg Egan, Ursula Le Guin and Bruno Latour, VR’s work evokes an ecosystem where technology and nature intertwine, blurring the lines between past, present and future. Places of memory (2023), an installation made up of projections and small screens, brings together sketches and video sequences from the creation of Flowers and draws a common thread between virtual and real spaces.
Credits
Virtual reality exhibition produced by Molior with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts. The exhibition tour is made possible thanks to funding from the Quebec Ministry of Culture and Communications.
New environments: approaching the untouchable @ Le Livart, Montreal, 2023
ABOUT MOLIOR
Molior is an organization specializing in the production of exhibitions and artistic projects that use technologies as a means of creation, expression and action. Since its founding in 2001, Molior has presented a large number of innovative projects both in Canada and on the international scene, in collaboration with numerous distribution partners: in China, Brazil, Peru, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, in Hungary, Switzerland, Portugal and France, showcasing the work of more than 170 Quebec and international artists and curators.
More information on nouveaux-environnements.ca
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