Peau d’âne by Valérie Lamontagne
Audio track, i8u
Fashion designs, Lynn van Gastel
Technical development and project programming, Patrice Coulombe and David Beaulieu
EXHIBITION:
September 15 to October 20, 2007 @ Oboro
Opening: Saturday, September 15, 2007, at 5:00 pm
the dresses will be presented from 6:00 to 7:00 pm
The gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday, from noon to 5:00 pm
EVENT:
Story Time: Peau d’âne
Saturday, September 29, 2007, at 3:00 pm
as part of the Journées de la culture
From the Charles Perrault fairy tale Peau d’âne, Valérie
Lamontagne draws on the motif of three fabulous dresses: one
made out of moonbeams, one as warm and bright as the sun
above and one cut out of the sky itself. Using innovative technologies
and working with experienced collaborators, the artist has
created three interactive dresses that react in real-time to atmospheric
variations transmitted by a weather station installed on
OBORO’s roof. The colours of the moon dress vary according to
the moon cycles; the illumination of the sun dress corresponds
to the intensity of the sun’s rays; and the sky dress swells and
moves depending on the patterns of the wind. By making use
of climate conditions in this manner, Peau d’âne addresses with
an apparently banal subject matter, but one that hides valuable
clues to our modes of cultural and social exchange. A multitude
of performance possibilities emerge from these wearables,
which bridge the worlds of fairy tales and technology.
At the opening, three dancers will wear the interactive dresses
and mingle with the gallery public. The dresses will also animate
the reading of Perrault’s fairy-tale Peau d’âne, presented by the
artist for the Journées de la culture.
Valérie Lamontagne is a Montréal-based performance/digital media
artist, freelance art critic and independent curator. Her media-based
artwork/performances (Advice Bunny, Snowflake Queen, Sense Nurse,
Mermaid of the Future, Sister Valerie of the Internet and Becoming
Balthus) have been showcased across Canada, the United States and
Europe. She received an MFA from Concordia University (Montréal)
where she presently teaches in the Design and Computation Arts
program and she is a co-founder, with Brad Todd, of the media arts
collective MobileGaze. She is presently a Ph.D. Candidate investigating
“Relational and Ubiquitous Performance Art”. <www.valerielamontagne.com>
– 30 –
Source : Caroline Loncol Daigneault, August 29th, 2007
OBORO remercie ses membres pour leur appui, ainsi que les organismes suivants pour leur généreux soutien financier : le service des arts médiatiques et le service des arts visuels du Conseil des Arts du Canada, le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec,
le Conseil des arts de Montréal, le ministère du Patrimoine canadien, le ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec, la Fondation Daniel Langlois, pour l’art, la science et la technologie, Emploi-Québec, le Service du développement culturel et
de la qualité du milieu de vie de la Ville de Montréal, la Caisse populaire Desjardins du Mont-Royal, le Cirque du Soleil, ainsi que les compagnies Discreet, Adobe, Computer Systems Odessa et Metric Halo.
Valérie Lamontagne – Peau d’âne
sun dress. image : Giannina Urmeneta Uttiker, 2006
Valérie Lamontagne would like to thank the Conseil des arts et des lettres
du Québec and Groupe Molior for their generous support as well as Lynn
van Gastel for the fashion designs, Patrice Coulombe and David Beaulieu
for their technical development and project programing and I8U for the
audio track.
EXHIBITION / EXPOSITION
un centre dédié à la production et à la présentation de l’art, des pratiques contemporaines et des nouveaux médias
a centre dedicated to the production and the presentation of art, contemporary practices and new media
www.oboro.net oboro@oboro.net
4001, rue Berri, local 301, Montréal (Québec) H2L 4H2 Tél. : (514) 844-3250