Mois Multi, world arts and monsters
After two years of pandemic turbulence, Mois Multi landed in Quebec with a powerful bouquet of flowers to brighten up February’s spleen. The digital and electronic arts festival is “reborn” in the wake of the COVID-19 eclipse and offers, as a reunion, a jubilant month to reflect on the state of the world.
There will be used robots to behold, the singing of invisible waterways to be felt, stories of gray-haired sex to be heard. This year, Mois Multi with its theme, “Monsters, martyrs and the sky”, spreads the net wide and abroad to move, make people laugh, often amaze.
“It’s like a rebirth this year,” says curator Émile Beauchemin, who has been directing the program for five years. This is the return of shows and installations, and we wanted to make it a big celebration. »
24 thise the edition is also a butterfly, explained the curator. The festival has finally emerged from its sanitary cocoon, ready to spread its wings with the public to explore humanity and a changing world.
Work to find
The program’s emblematic work features second-hand robots, made from trash dumped by the West in Africa. Congo’s Precy Numbi designs her sculptures from sheet metal, electronic components and recycled plastic as so many environmental heroes, guardians of a planet whose inhabitants are stubborn to exploit their neighbors and rush to the climate wall.. Can humans who are sometimes so inhumane still claim the monopoly on consciousness? The endless stares from the trash androids were shown on Robot sapiens kimbamba seems to want to know: who are the monsters, polluting creatures or us who make it possible?
It’s a scaffolding party with people here. This gives access to voices that have little access to the stage. People are excited, but they can’t wait to share this emancipation movement!
In this ever-changing world, the melodies of the waterfalls start to sound wrong to the point of confusing the birds. In fact, singing waterfalls produce infrasound that can travel nearly 400 km and direct bird migration. However, there are distortions with the progress of cities and their noise pollution. Catalan Marc Vilanova proposed, with Cascade, to make a waterfall song look and feel thanks to these 150 infrasound amplifying speakers. The frequencies will strike the luminous optical fiber, which will testify to its vibrations in the large sound curtain. “This is a way to manifest what we don’t feel,” explains Émile Beauchemin. It is a work filled with poetry, but also very impressive: the installation is almost 27 feet long and 12 feet high. »
Toronto band Mammalian Diving Reflex is making a comeback this year bringing a brand new human experience. In 2022, the troop entrusts scissors – and heads of volunteers – to children from Quebec who have become hairstylist apprentices for a day. This time the troupe returns to the capital with a new sex show. Throughout the fall, the group recruited fifteen seniors from the capital to design All the Sex I’ve Ever Had. The show revolves around sexual anecdotes experienced by the protagonists. Slightly voyeuristic, slightly irreverent, this show is first and foremost a liberating act that winks – and especially thumbs up its nose – at the taboo that places sexuality under glass.
“This is a celebration shared with people from here, says Émile Beauchemin. This gives access to voices that have little access to the stage. People are excited, but they can’t wait to share this emancipation movement! »
For three nights, Kid Koala and his jazz orchestra will lie down Storyville Mosquitoes on the Diamant stage, the gem of a performance hall in Quebec. The Vancouverite and his band will present a musical cinematography created live on stage. In all, 14 artists will make this tour de force possible. The film tells the epic story of a mosquito who leaves everything to conquer the city. “This is a story about a leap into the void, a leap in front of you, said the commissioner. There is great research and great expertise behind this work. »
Mois Multi also provides a place of pride for local artists who are often not prophets in their own country. liminal, by Louis-Philippe Rondeau, will enable people “from ages 3 to 99”, explains Émile Beauchemin, to immerse themselves in interactive and immersive creations in endless time travel. “This artist has traveled the world with his work, but we know very little about him in Quebec, regrets curator 24e Multi Month. I think it’s crazy that he doesn’t have his rightful place here. »
