EXHIBITIONS 2017

November 2 to December 2, 2017
International Digital Miniprint Exhibition 12
I babble, therefore I am
Raymond Aubin, curator
Opening: Thursday, November 2 at 5 p.m.

This exhibition presented the artwork of many artists reflecting on the subject of the staging of oneself, from a Facebook diary perspective.

The exhibition included selfies, daily life in its utmost banality, the superficiality of personal histories, the sensation of spectacular odysseys, and the kitsch of familiar objects. The key was to push oneself forward and blow one’s own horn.

For this exhibition, participating artists were from Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia and Ukraine.

Three prizes and three mentions were awarded:
1st prize (Voix Visuelle prize) to Laurence Finet, Canada, for Plaisir;
2nd prize (Voix Visuelle prize) to Saeko Hanji, Japan, for Breathing Space #36;
3rd prize (Marcil Lavallée prize) to Mónica Márquez, Canada, for Un bonjour de Moscou;
Honorable mention to Izabella Retkowska, Pologne, for Merry Christmas;
Honorable mention to Noémie Avidar, Canada for petite doro;
Honorable mention to Ralph Nevins, Canada for 17_0012a_08.

Also included in the gallery below are the work of:
Florentia Ikonomidou, Greece, Undelivered
Gail Bourgeois & Pira Pirani, Canada, Morse Code Project (Coding)
Isao Kobayashi, Japan, The place where the memory returns No. 139

: Laurence Finet

: Saeko Hanji

: Mónica Márquez

: Izabella Retkowska

: Noémie Avidar

: Ralph Nevins

: Florentia Ikonomidou

: Bourgeois & Pirani

: Isao Kobayashi

The complete list of artists, as well as the curator’s text and the catalog

The Centre d’artistes Voix Visuelle would like to thank the Ontario Arts Council, Canadian Heritage, the City of Ottawa and Marcil Lavallée for their support.

September 14 to October 17, 2017
Paula Franzini
Fil de pensée (Thoughtstream)
Opening: Thursday, September 14 at 5 p.m.

Fil de pensée (Thoughtstream), an exhibit by Paula Franzini, paid tribute to her mother and this woman’s musings, which mirror her own.

Combining her fascination for complex chaotic systems (mechanistic assemblies, living organisms) with her mother’s personal and professional writings and calligraphy, as well as photos from her mother’s life, the artist presented diverse digital prints and videos, where the random and the intentional appear side by side, and where there is a fine line between the thoughts of the mother and the thoughts of the child.

: Installation 1, detail

: Installation 2, detail

: Peregrination, video

: Liquid Reflections, video

: Crystalline Dreams, video

: Peregrination, video

The Centre d’artistes Voix Visuelle would like to thank the Ontario Arts Council, Canadian Heritage and the City of Ottawa for their support.

September 29, 2017
L’instant présent
Izabel Barsive, Curator

On Friday, September 29, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., Culture Days was celebrated at Gamman House with an 8:00 p.m. showing of L’instant présent, a video projection curated by Izabel Barsive. Artists Raymond Aubin, Marie-Pier Chayer Demers, Kalambay Kalula, Doris Lamontagne, Vee Penz, Yanie Porlier, David Ross, Gilles Roy, Komi Seshie and Paul Walty each contributed by creating 3 to 5 minute videos based on personal experiences or philosophical, metaphysical, social or historical concepts.

Barsive invited the artists to consider the notion of time, or more precisely, the present moment. This was interpreted in various ways: the time we don’t have, the time we wish we could freeze, the time that ages us…

The work:

David Ross — Palimpseste (Palimpsest)
Palimpseste is a visual and auditory project built of the accumulation, the successive destruction and reconstruction, of videos, photos, and personal memories. The final version shows the vestiges of this process, and by its inherent defects invites us to reflect upon digital memory.

Doris Lamontagne — Cassandre (Cassandra)
In Greek mythology Cassandra receives from Apollo the gift of predicting the future but, as she refuses his advances, he decrees that her predictions will never be believed. 2007-2017, when environmental scientists refuse to align their research results with the ideologies of governments controlled by multinationals, brutal budget cuts are imposed upon them.
Cassandra : 2017 : The predicted disasters become media events in a future past which converts into “present moment”.
Cassandra: The rape of science: The failure of the authorities.

Gilles Roy — Éclats de vie (Flashes of Life)
The two words are synonymous, so they must be understood as a single title. If time is divided into infinitesimal fractions, the present moment is not within human reach. Therefore, this approach targets the human being, and in order to do this I attempt to define multiple present moments with the help of markers or frontiers. Just as one would define an island by water, an image (dream) will be inserted between markers. Moreover, I will define the present moment by its absence, its lengths, its recurrence/frequency. Ultimately, I will try to create the present moment by each of the five senses (sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste).

Kalula Kalambay — L’empreinte du pèlerin (The Footprint of the Pilgrm)
In this work, Kalula tries to demonstrate that each step of the pilgrim is an inner quest towards the spiritual elevation necessary to celebrate the eternity of the present moment. The subtle interaction, between the intensity of of the physical suffering experienced and the awe inspired by the beauty of the surrounding nature, prolongs the length of the moment lived.
The slow motion, and the superimposed images, paired with appropriate sounds, accentuate the suspension of time and give the actual dimension of boundlessness desired.

Komi Seshie — Le pèlerinage (The pilgramage)
In my artistic process, I pursue a reflection based on various media sources that address socio-economic, geopolitical and environmental issues.
Like heavenly bodies in their orbits, they are looking for sanctuary! They wish to find room for their progeny in a peaceful place! Others wish to deepen their knowledge. “The world, our world, has existed since night of time, yet every day we must recreate it. If we did not walk upon the earth, it would not exist.” (Breytenbach, 2011). Ultimately, we move around to create!

Marie-Pier Chayer Demers — Éphémère (Ephemeral)
“Ephemeral” is a word often used to describe the performing arts. Each second one is on stage, one must immerse oneself in the present instant. This instant, at once brief and infinite, has us travel in our imagination. It is in this frame of mind that I wished to create Éphémère, and to thus portray this sensation of the present moment, as it is experienced on stage.

Paul Walty — Nuit Bleue (Blue night) / Crosstown Bus
Nuit bleue / Crosstown Bus has its origins in a video taken in Vancouver while returning by bus to the hotel, on a rainy fall day. While I was filming thorough the bus window with my digital camera, the night became imbued with a particular blue that greatly pleased me.
The work is an image by image animation. My source, filmed over about twenty minutes, is composed of several hundred images taken in burst mode from this mass transit bus with interior lighting.
As for the choice of frame rate, I was aiming for an animation that would portray the slowness of movement felt by a tired, rain-damp person, drowsing in the well-heated bus.

Raymond Aubin — Au fil de L’eau (Run of the river)
My art is closely linked with my vision of a contingent and chaotic world. The furtive appearance of disarray hidden in daily life calls forth emotion and questioning. I use devices, and I propose photo, video art, and sound art installations. The uncertainty at the root of art in Eastern Asia has fascinated me for a long time. In this art, opposites coexist. There is no need to explain things; shaking them will suffice.

Vee Penz — The Pilot
This film explores the themes of autonomous choice and liberty in life and death. In exploring this thanks to the experience of an airplane, this film implies the question “Who is the pilot?”
Using video sequences gathered over the course of three years, Vee Penz recreates the feelings and experience of a flight. A major theme is the liberty found in the present moment where you submit all control.

Yanie Porlier — 0 1
Social networks have, unquestionably, an impact on our relationship with time.
We live in an era of the instantaneous where waiting has no place.
We are witnessing a mind-body split where the body is present and the mind is elsewhere, where the real and the virtual fuse and form a digital blend.
The work “0 1” tries to recreate this instant where separation and fusion occur.

The Centre d’artistes Voix Visuelle would like to thank the Ontario Arts Council, Canadian Heritage and the City of Ottawa for their support.

July 15, 2017 to July 14, 2018
At the Centre Richelieu-Vanier
Voix numérique Exhibition
Marie Hélène Giguère, curator

June 17 to July 4, 2017
Voix Jeunes Talents
Opening: Thursday, June 22 at 5 pm

Curated by Grégoire Hubert, the exhibition explored the theme Digital Generation. 

This year once more, Voix Visuelle held its exhibition for young artists, Voix Jeunes Talents. Born at the crossroads of media, technology and networks, a whole generation has become the principal player and producer of this new digital era. The artists of this generation break the established rules to push the envelope and thus take greater ownership of the surrounding world by showing us how they see things. What relationship do those young artists maintain with technology? How do they manage the boundaries between the real and the virtual?

The opening of the exhibition took place on Thursday, June 22 at 5 pm, at the Centre d’artistes Voix Visuelle. Three prizes were awarded at the opening.

Prizes:

1st prize: to Lina Akkawi for her video Hologram

2nd prize: to Adriana Gutiérrez for her image Regard Virtuel

3rd prize: to Mélanie Dugas for her video Décompression

Honorable mention: to Isabella Khalil for her image Cache-cache

Honorable mention: to Éloïse Mutombo for her video La Nuit

The Centre d’artistes Voix Visuelle would like to thank the Ontario Arts Council, Canadian Heritage, the City of Ottawa and the Community Foundation of Ottawa for their support. 

April 8 to May 9, 2017
Sophie Cardin
RIP & KIT (Rest in Peace and Keep in Touch)
Opening: Thursday, April 13, 5:00 pm

“In the infinite memory of the Web, there is life after death.” This exhibition presented the work of artist Sophie Cardin, which explores the idea of digital footprints and post-mortem communication.

In RIP & KIT (Rest In Peace and Keep In Touch), an installation of tombstones evoking the digital world questions the desire for immortality that drives us. Just how far is the Internet taking us? Should we be concerned about our digital legacy? Are physical commemoration sites still necessary, even with Facebook providing a deceased person’s friends with a place to gather virtually? This exhibition aims to open the discussion.

The Centre d’artistes Voix Visuelle would like to thank the Ontario Arts Council, Canadian Heritage and the City of Ottawa for their support.

January 21 to February 21, 2017
Manon Pelletier and Kévin Calixte
Opening: Thursday, January 26, 5:00 pm

This exhibition presented the work of Kévin Calixte and Manon Pelletier, two artists for whom photography of people is central to the proposed project.

Kévin Calixte reflects upon generation Y’s fascination for yoga. With his Yo series, he explores the theme of the emotional and physical balance of different Canadian yogis, while trying to capture their point of equilibrium.

Manon Pelletier shows a couple together for a long time, but their heads are hidden. Because he cannot see their expression, the viewer decodes their gestures, interprets them and creates his own scenario.

The opening of the exhibition will take place on Thursday, January 26 at 5 p.m. at the Centre d’artistes Voix Visuelle.

: Pelletier — 1

: Pelletier — 2

: Pelletier — 3

: Calixte — 1

: Calixte — 2

: Calixte — 3

Centre d’artistes Voix Visuelle would like to thank the Ontario Arts Council, Canadian Heritage, and the City of Ottawa for their support.

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