(Alexandre D’Astous)-The Great Gathering of Media Arts in Gaspésie, co-produced by the Festival Les Percéides [Festival international de cinéma et
d’art de Percé] will take place from 1er to September 4 in the old building of the Center d’Art de Percé (located at 62, route 132 Ouest) to celebrate its seventh presentation.
The activities and programming take place mainly indoors at the Les Percéides cinema and in the new bar and lounge area located in the heart of the village of Percé (former Charles-Robin heritage barn).
Dedicated to emerging media arts in all its forms, La Grande Rencontre aims to create a unifying event in Gaspésie centered on media arts and the contemporary experimental practices that flow from them. This year, under the curatorship of Quebecer Esther Bourdages, the edition includes a screening of a short film outside the UNESCO Global Geopark of Percé, three programs of short films, a round table with the artists present, performances indoor audiovisuals, two sound interventions near Percé beach. The edition promotes emerging and mid-career artists who are developing independent production. About twenty artists from Quebec and elsewhere will be present in Percé for the occasion.
Projection of a video work
The Great Meeting begins with a video work projected on the exterior facade of the UNESCO Global Geopark of Percé from 1er September 5 from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.er September at 7 p.m. at the CINÉMA Les Percéides and a member of the team will guide you to the location.
The work If I saw you, I don’t remember(The Novels of Elsgüer, Episode 5, 2020) by Laura Acosta & Santiago Tavera, in collaboration with Milton Riaño, translates the movements of an invisible body into visual data in the form filamentary animations, intermittent reflections and flickering shadows. A true sensory experience, this video questions how contrasting individuals – visible or not – have the potential to create new spaces while questioning visibility, inclusion and exclusion.
A special event is dedicated to Gesgapegiag artist Naomi Condo who selected a carte blanche program of Mi’kmaq short films, in the presence of Naomi Condo, Gage Barnaby, Nation Isaac, Jesse Martin, Ryan Parker and other surprise guests .
Experimental cinema and video art
The three programs of short films presented during the Great Meeting of Media Arts in Gaspésie celebrate cultures, difference and pose a critical point of view on everyday life. Several films touch on universal themes, such as nature, inking and exploration of the territory. The programming puts forward a wide spectrum of media practices, ranging from formal and experimental studies, from video to conceptual art, through non-linear narrative forms, including also experimental documentary essays.
Mineral Body (2021) by French and Quebec directors Charline Dally and Gabrielle HB (the mauve desert) is inspired by geology, science fiction and documentary archives. The layers of memory, whether contained in rock or in our cells, are part of a cycle ranging from sedimentation to disintegration. Per voi oggi la luce del sole non splenderà (2021) by Swiss director Andrea Bordoli is a post-apocalyptic ecofiction film that features two workers who wander in an area where interior and exterior territories are intertwined.
The Spirit Keepers of Makuta’ay (2019) by Quebec director of Taiwanese origin Yen-Chao Lin was filmed in traditional Friends territories and offers a journey through villages on the east coast of Taiwan, where nature, colonization and the migration of populations converge and create a unique spiritual landscape. Salin (2022) by Quebecer Anne-Marie Bouchard is made up of visual and sound loops, this work explores organic textures related to images shot in Gaspésie in 1966. Yikinging spaces (2021) by Canadian-Belgian artist kimura byol lemoine offers a meditative stroll and is a diasporic journey based on the elements of Yi-King and the colors of saekdong (traditional Korean fabrics) in vertical composition (Asian perspective). 20-20 (2021) by Quebecer Karen Trask is a compilation of 5 short reflections on 2020. Each was created as Karen Trask’s contribution to an exquisite corpse video project called 2GatherApart. It was organized by a group of Montreal artists in order to stay connected and creative during the pandemic. The dance video (Wel)Coming in (2021) by Quebecer Emmanuelle Roberge pays tribute to the particular journey of coming out for people from the LGBTQ+ community in the Iles-de-la-Madeleine, in addition to being an important invitation to openness to the other. Using an array of augmented interfaces and body imaging technologies, Identity Templates for a Disordered Body [Modèles identitaires
pour un corps désordonné] by Chilean-Canadian Francisco Gonzalez Rosa approaches identity through the repetition of visions of oneself. Beginning with an interview with a drag character, meticulously decked out with references to viral tendencies, the work continues with the production of a plastic 3D print from a scan of the artist’s body. Miryam Charles presents the film Song for the New World (2021). Following a man’s disappearance in Scotland, his daughter recalls lyrics sung before dark.
Exploratory documentaries
With the documentary STUCK (2021) the producer-director, French cultural reporter for the French-language Ontario channel TFO Toronto, Joanne Belluco documented the impact of the pandemic with eight French-speaking Canadian artists in the grip of an unprecedented situation in terms of creative, emotional and even financial. From Toronto to Sudbury, via Montreal and Acadia, they immerse us in their daily lives, the time of a very unique cultural season… ATALAYA (2021) documentary by Franco-Canadian Emma Roufs delivers a sensitive and personal pilgrimage on traces of the disappearance at sea of his father Gerry Roufs. Tambores (2017) by Quebecer Laurie Tatibouët offers a look at a Tikuna elder from the community of Puerto Nariño in Colombia on the banks of the Amazon River (south-east of the so-called Colombian Amazon) on traditional Tikuna songs and some of their contemporary developments. The animated film Anxious Body (2021) by the Japanese Yoriko Mizushiri will surprise the public with the remarkable surreal universe created by the drawn organic forms.
An audiovisual component
The Great Gathering of Media Arts in Gaspésie also encompasses exploratory practices, in sound and audio art, in the form of performances and interventions.
Colombian-Canadian Milton Riaño will illuminate solo audiences with Origo, an audiovisual composition created from real-time geographic visualization/exploration of physical and virtual spaces. During the performance, the artist uses an instrument composed of an ultrasonic sensor, a rotation motor and laser diodes to explore a sculpture present on stage, as well as a navigation system to move between spaces. digital. – As a duo, Quebecers Claude Périard and Guillaume Vallée will rock the room with Plateaux. Using the voice as the central medium in an instrumentarium of machines (modular synthesizers, no-input, sampler and computer), she seeks to involve the body in live sound production. With a techno-biological apparatus, three microphones in the center of the gaming device pass the voice through a series of digital granulation treatments, rendering it unrecognizable. In addition to the voice, a keyboard also mobilizes the use of the body to trigger brief samples of glitches. In terms of visuals, Guillaume Vallée projects textures created from film, reworked on magnetic tape and then digitized to be able to manipulate them live via a computer. The rhythm of the projection attempts to match the rhythm of the musical score and to visualize the contrast between the different sections. – In solo, Quebecer of Mexican origin Martín Rodríguez will perform Entre Temps Perdu, a listening experience that consists of an instrument using live radio broadcasts, a theremin, and a single cymbal. Exploring time, movement and resonance, the result is an unveiling of the harmonies and textures hidden between broadcast and cymbal.
Ticket available at Cinema LES PERCEIDES, 62, route 132 Ouest, Percé, Qc, G0C 2L0
-Tickets for theatrical film screenings: $12
-Tickets for the short film program – part 3 -unique – $8
– Evening audiovisual performances, 2 programs, 2 evenings: $12 each evening
General info: Great meeting of media arts: info@perceides.ca
Photo: Gesgapegiag artist Naomi Condo will present a program of Mi’kmaq short films. (Courtesy photo)