As part of the 2nd Commission Mixte Permanente (CMP) Québec/Wallonie-Bruxelles (2022-2024), the iMAL Contemporary Art Center in Brussels and the Galerie Elektra in Montreal are collaborating on a transatlantic exhibition project.
The Quebec component of this collaboration welcomes the exhibition The empty sphere - Ecdysis, by two artists from Wallonia-Brussels Federation Stéphanie Rolland and Laura Colmenares Guerra, from November 3 to December 16.
The artists will be present at the opening on Friday, November 3rd at the Elektra Gallery.
The empty sphere, Stéphanie Roland
En général, un héros de Science-fiction part vers un ailleurs, une autre planète, un système solaire, il s’éloigne de la planète pour de nombreuses raisons possibles. Ici, on explore aussi des terres inconnues, mais le mouvement est inversé, l’objet spatial retourne vers la terre, plonge dans l’eau et revient au coeur de la terre.
De la même manière, je voulais entreprendre un voyage dans la matérialité du cinéma. On part du Digital Cinema 4K contemporain, typique des films de SF, pour revenir ensuite vers de l’archive, à la fois réelle et fictive, en pellicule. Les images abstraites ont été réalisées avec une caméra homemade, qui mélange les propriétés d’un sonar et d’un instrument pour analyser les exoplanètes, reliant ici l’océan et l’espace.
La vaste majorité des protagonistes de SF sont des hommes blancs occidentaux entre 30 et 50 ans. Il est important pour moi que le seul personnage présent ici soit une femme scientifique d’une cinquantaine d’années, tranche d’âge et sexe sous-représenté dans le domaine scientifique ainsi que dans la représentation cinématographique en général.
Biography
Stéphanie Roland is a belgian / micronesian visual artist and filmmaker. Working between documentary and the imaginary, Roland makes films and installations exploring invisible structures, hyperobjects and deep time; from ecological and political to the geologic and cosmic.
After graduating from La Cambre and following Hito Steyerl’s class in UDK Berlin, she completed post-graduates studies at Fresnoy - Studio National. Her work is regularly shown at international level, her projects have been included in exhibitions from major institutions among these Louvre Museum, Benaki Museum, Botanique, Kampala International Art Biennale, Bozar and Wiels. Breda Photo, Belfast Photo festival, Manifesto, Encontros da Imagem, BIP Liège, MOPLA and Unseen are amongst the festivals dedicated to photography in which she took part.
In 2017, she was selected in the group exhibition of the Antarctica Pavilion for the 57th Venice Biennale. Her films have been screened in international festivals such as Visions du Réel, FID Marseille, ZINEBI, FEST New Directors / New Films, Rencontres Internationales Paris / Berlin, among others. Her second short film, Podesta Island, had its world premiere at FID Marseille, where it wons the Alice Guy Prize. The empty sphere won the TËNK Award at Visions du Réel 2022. stephanieroland.be
Ecdysis, Laura Colmenares Guerra & Jana Irmert
Ecdysis is the natural process through which reptiles and insects moult, shedding their old skin or exoskeleton multiple times during their lifecycles. In this animated piece, a slow-moving camera meanders through a 3D reproduction of the Amazon Rainforest's topography, creating an abstract fluidity that simultaneously evokes a profound sense of vastness and the outstanding likeness to the texture of an animal's skin.
Upon closer examination, the intricacies of the Amazon basin's topography reveal an uncanny resemblance to the skin of a living, colossal creature. Indeed, with its rich diversity of river ecosystems and rainforests, the Amazon can be envisioned as an immense and interconnected organism. The animation was developed using the 3D reproduction of the Amazon basin's topography, created within the framework of the Ríos Trilogy project.
The sound composition was made entirely from field recordings in the Amazon using hydrophones and ultrasound recordings. Through various processing methods, the sound elements are extracted from the dense jungle environments and transformed into melodic formations and rhythmic patterns.
Biography
Laura Colmenares Guerra is a Colombian artist based in Brussels, working with installation, sculpture & digital narratives in the field of 3D (animation, Virtual Reality and 3D printing). Laura explores the intricate relationships between contemporary Western societies and the natural world, encompassing ecosystems, the environment, and all living beings. Her artworks pivot around a profound exploration of the intersection between these domains, leading her to create immersive settings that relate to the politics of landscape and the notions of territory. She explores the constructions of the concepts of nature, natural and language as a foundation medium for reality. ulara.org
Infos pratiques
Vernissage : vendredi 03 novembre
17h - 19h
Galerie ELEKTRA
5445 Av. de Gaspé #104, Montréal, QC H2T 3B2
Exposition : 03 novembre - 16 décembre 2023
Mardi - Samedi : 12–17H
Entrée gratuite