Vidéographe and Vtape, in partnership with Le Labo, join forces to celebrate the richness and diversity of video art practices in the Montreal and Toronto scenes. This program brings together nine works from their respective collections, created by thirteen emerging artists. Through this joint initiative, Vidéographe and Vtape aim to highlight and continue their longstanding collaboration.
PROGRAM (70 min)
- Ko pyhare, para siempre, Fiorella Boucher, Laura Criollo-Carrillo, 2022, 5 min
- Am I Human?, Gladys Lou, 2022, 1 min 37 s
- Hommage à Rose Drummond, Antoine Amnotte-Dupuis, 2023, 12 min 23 s
- Horse in Motion, Lillian Ross-Millard, 2022, 10 min 17 s
- En attendant Lolo, Jules Ronfard, 2022, 8 min
- The Propagation of Uncertainty, Emily DiCarlo, 2020, 5 min 50 s
- Mindscapes, Valeryia Naboikina; Malte Leander, 2023, 8 min 40 s
- Kauaʻi ʻōʻō, Samy Benammar, 2023, 3 min 48 s
- Hoa, Tram Anh Nguyen, 2022, 14 min 24 s
SYNOPSES
Ko pyhare, para siempre, Fiorella Boucher, Laura Criollo-Carrillo, 2022, 5 min
Child of two worlds that do not speak to each other, a girl speaks to her mother and her grandmother. She travels through the dilated space of origins, impostures and wounds.
Am I Human?, Gladys Lou, 2022, 1 min 37 s
Am I Human? is a post-human exploration of data, artificial intelligence, and surveillance using video and sound. The glitch on screen disrupts communication and reflects my questioning of the challenges of being human within normative cultural standards.
Hommage à Rose Drummond, Antoine Amnotte-Dupuis, 2023, 12 min 23 s
Composer Jean Derome and his ensemble pay vibrant tribute to the prominent Quebec land art artist Rose Drummond through a collection of whimsical, ready-made songs brought to life by reassembled 16mm family archives and altered filmed performances.
Horse in Motion, Lillian Ross-Millard, 2022, 10 min 17 s
A figure walks through a digitally saturated landscape on a quest to find her grief, using old phone photos and videos as landmarks to help her navigate. This piece explores an amnesiac experience of loss, inspired by the artist’s fragmented experience of grief and melancholia during and around the pandemic.
En attendant Lolo, Jules Ronfard, 2022, 8 min
On a country road, a couple gone for a ride on a scooter find themselves immobilized after running out of gas. While waiting for their friend Lolo, a philosophical discussion ensues.
The Propagation of Uncertainty, Emily DiCarlo, 2020, 5 min 50 s
Emily DiCarlo’s three-channel video installation, The Propagation of Uncertainty, explores the friction between what she terms “the infrastructure of time and the intimacy of duration.” The work focuses on time frequency standards and how our accelerated, networked world relies on the foundation of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). While airports, stock markets, and telecommunications operate through precise temporal orchestration, UTC reigns as an authoritatively omnipresent force that, in reality, is far from absolute.
Mindscapes, Valeryia Naboikina; Malte Leander, 2023, 8 min 40 s
The notion of escapism refers to the tendency of individuals to retreat from the customary challenges of life into the comforting, yet deceptive, embrace of fantasy. Through a multidimensional exploration, this film maps a journey that encompasses the transformative phases of departure, immersion, and return.
Kauaʻi ʻōʻō, Samy Benammar, 2023, 3 min 48 s
In 2000, the International Union for Conservation of Nature declared the Oʻō of Kauai officially extinct. All that remains of this endemic bird from the eponymous Hawaiian island is a recording of its song by ornithologist David Boynton. Between the territories and the treetops, the artist is still hoping to find a trace of the extinct birds.
Hoa, Tram Anh Nguyen, 2022, 14 min 24 s
In Vietnamese, “hoa” means flower. It is also the first name of the filmmaker’s bà nội (paternal grandmother). Before developing memory disorders, his grandmother, Tuyết Hoa, wrote an autobiographical book about her life and its events. The book, translated from Vietnamese, is titled Memories of Tuyết Hoa and subtitled When My Country is Peaceful: Memoirs of a Saigon Female Student. She now reads this book every day in her home in Hanoi.
PARTNERS
Vtape
Incorporated as a non-profit organization in 1983, Vtape is one of Canada’s leading media arts distributors. Its distribution catalog includes more than 6,700 independent artworks by about 1,500 Canadian and international artists, spanning the years from 1969 to the present. In addition, Vtape provides public access to a large collection of research materials on video art and artists, and runs a restoration and digitization service for artists, museums, galleries, arts organizations, and other clients.
Vidéographe
Established in 1971 in Montréal, Vidéographe is an artist-run center dedicated to the research and the dissemination of moving image practices. This includes experimentation in video art, animation, digital arts, documentary, essay, fiction and dance video.
Le Labo
Le Labo Centre for Francophone Media Arts of Toronto has the special responsibility to help connect the artistic and the francophone communities of Toronto. Central to Le Labo’s mandate is to support creation, production and innovation in the Media Arts Sector in addition to fostering artistic collaboration and providing exhibition opportunities. In addition to providing access to a media production studio space with professional state-of-the-art technology, the Labo’s annual programming includes residencies, exhibitions, installations, workshops, conferences and artist talks.
