Forêt d'ifs

For our first site-specific residency of the season, we are pleased to present Érick d'Orion’s Forêt d'ifs, an immersive audio and video installation. From the 5th to the 28th of September, the public is invited to discover this first videographic artwork of the artist. A meeting in his presence will be held on the 5th of September at 5 pm. On île d’Orléans, less than 15 minutes away by car from LA CHAMBRE BLANCHE, grows a forest of yews (small shrubs with relatively slow growth of the forests of North America’s North-East). There, the acoustic, visual, organic and mineral environments and the local « ecology » of the artist-run center are at opposite extremes. For his residency, Érick d’Orion wishes to bring together the two physical environments of the forest of yews and the surroundings of LA CHAMBRE BLANCHE in an audio and video installation where the visitor will be able, not only to observe these spaces, but also, to become an element of this acoustic and visual landscape. Being in three different places at a time (the interpretation of île d’Orléans, LA CHAMBRE BLANCHE and the interpretation of the indoors and outdoors of the artist-run center), the spectator is integrated in them, sees them, hears them and absorbs them at once, in a same “scene”. As a stroll in the forest or as a walk in the city, the body of the spectator is challenged by sounds and noises, lights and colors, objects and textures, like many obstacles or stimulus to analyse. Érick d'Orion lives and works in Quebec City. He is an artist in audio art, installation and new media, a self-thaught composer/musician, an audio art curator and an active member of LA CHAMBRE BLANCHE. His audio artworks, presented in Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Belgium, France and Australia, are close to noize, free jazz and electroacoustic music as well as musique concrète. He also develops installation projects where sound and new technologies are assembled to create artworks in constant movement, beeing both sources and audio transmitors. For now, his reflexions are centered on the reinterpretation, the appropriation and the rereading of certain concepts of art history, like musique concrète, dadaism and futurism. Recently, he presented the individual exhibition Solo de musique concrète pour 6 pianos sans pianistes at Oboro (Montréal) and Séquences (Chicoutimi). His residency at LA CHAMBRE BLANCHE profits from the Laboratoire de muséologie et d'ingénierie de la culture (LAMIC). Forêt d’ifs is also his first installation to be presented in Quebec City.