Thursday, 23 January 2014 — This evening, the Ville de Montréal proudly unveilsChorégraphies pour des humains et des étoiles, the first digital artwork in its public art collection, created specially for the Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium at Espace pour la vie. Created by Mouna Andraos and Melissa Mongiat, this unusual installation invites visitors to enter a poetic dialogue with celestial phenomena. As visitors move in front of the artwork, their actions will influence the animations projected onto the surface of the building, offering a fascinating discovery of astronomy. Visitors and passersby will be invited to take part in this playful activity every evening at dusk beside the Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium.
“Québec is proud of its policy of integration of arts with architecture, also known as the 1% policy,” stated the minister of culture and communications, Maka Kotto. “With 3,200 artworks designed for our public squares and buildings, Québec has become not only an open-air museum, but a vector for democratization of art. For our artists, this policy provides an ideal showcase for their works and a means of sharing them with the public.”
“For almost 25 years, the Ville de Montréal has been enriching its collection of public art, which totals more than 315 artworks today”, noted Manon Gauthier, Member of the Executive Committee of the Ville de Montréal and responsible for culture, heritage, and design, Espace pour la vie, and status of women. “We are happy to welcome our first digital artwork into our collection. With Chorégraphies pour des humains et des étoiles, Mouna Andraos and Melissa Mongiat honour us, once more, with their brilliance, poetry, and intelligence.”
“The Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium offers a breathtaking encounter among art, science, and emotion,” noted Charles-Mathieu Brunelle, director of Espace pour la vie. “This digital artwork is a perfect fit with the vision of Espace pour la vie; in addition, it brings to reality our desire to create lively, reinvented spaces with visitors. When they arrive at the planetarium, visitors are invited to dance with the stars – a completely original introduction to astronomy!”
Dancing with the Stars!
Chorégraphies pour des humains et des étoiles is a participatory performance artwork that boldly combines art and digital technology. Mouna Andraos and Melissa Mongiat, the creators of 21 Balançoires, presented in the Quartier des spectacles de Montréal since 2011, and known for their original artworks, invite visitors to rediscover astronomy through play and to reinvent the movements of the stars and planets. By moving within a circular space on the ground, participants can, alone or in groups, interact with the artwork and embody different cosmic scenes, which appear in giant images on the façade of the planetarium. Combined, the animated images and the actions of participant-dancers become a living theatre of poetic movements of heavenly bodies and the universe.
Art for everyone, in every neighbourhood
This new acquisition expresses the Ville de Montréal’s desire to improve the urban living environment through artworks that are accessible to everyone, transform the city, and encourage encounters between residents and artists. Andraos and Mongiat opted for an open, participatory artistic approach, and so young residents of the neighbourhood had the privilege of taking part in the creative process. This way of doing things corresponds perfectly to the desire of the Public Art Bureau and Espace pour la vie to see residents appropriate, enliven, and inhabit the public space.
Reinventing our relationship with nature
Now containing the greatest concentration of nature museums in Canada and the first world site dedicated to humans and nature, Espace pour la vie has initiated a bold, creative urban movement that rethinks the connection between human beings and nature and cultivates a new way of life. For Espace pour la vie, the inclusion of this unique artwork is a direct invitation to residents to participate in this movement.
© Geoffrey Boulangé