Oracle.sss

July, august and september 2017

For Oracle.sss, the ad hoc collective will present an in situ and in socious research and creation project that uses as its starting point the large stone arch of Laval-sur-le-Lac: a picturesque construction that has marked the entrance to this neighbourhood for several decades.

The arch stems from a very ancient tradition whose symbolic function is to mark one’s passage into a new world. Oracle.sss questions the many dissimilarities that exist around the Laval arch.

Settling into unknown territory, the artists will begin their communication process with the various physical, psychic and energetic entities that present themselves to them. Their mystical and ritualistic approach intends to reveal the potential hidden mysteries within the physical, sociological, mythical and mystical landscape of Laval-sur-le-Lac.

Over the course of the summer, the artists conducted a series of mini-residencies while living in a trailer – a kind of mobile cottage. This makeshift dwelling, set in the middle of the area’s luxurious homes, highlights both worlds and recalls the strange, even mysterious character of travelling fortune-telling caravans.

This fall, Verticale invites you to a multi-disciplinary event by the ad hoc collective that combines in situ installation, performance and audio art, that reveals the power of exchange and the sharing of disparate practices.

Magali Babin

Magali Babin is an interdisciplinary artist who works in sound art to explore space as a medium for sound. Her materials and textured environments are located between haptic proximity, acoustic landscapes and the various contexts of daily life. Her works focus on the imperceptibility that drives alertness and attention through listening. Her recent projects address perception and memory by questioning how we identify with sounds.

Magali Babin is a composer, sound artist and curator of sound art events. She has given concerts and performed in international festivals in Canada, the US and in Europe. Her sound installations have been presented in venues such as the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (2011), the Mois Multi (Qéuébec, 2012), the Galerie Louise-et-Reuben-Cohen at the Université de Moncton (2012), at La Fabrique (Nantes, France, 2013), and at the Maison de la culture Maisonneuve (2015). In 2013, she received a grant from the Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication française for a research residency at the Saline Royale (Franche-Comté). She is currently completing her PhD in Studio Art at UQAM, for which she received a research grant from the Fonds de recherché Société et culture du Québec (FQRSC).

Artist’s website

Marie-Claude Gendron

Through her multidisciplinary practice in art action and media arts, Marie-Claude Gendron attempts to draw the framework of a community that is constantly updated within public, private and intimate spheres. Adopting the posture of a makeshift ethnographer, she reports on the object of her observation through her artwork. Her performative interventions respond to a need to emphasize the uniqueness of the present through poetry in action.

Born in Québec, Marie-Claude Gendron has organized performative events and participated in several residencies, exhibitions and events, namely in Quebec, France, Brazil, Italy, Northern Ireland, Thailand, Mexico and Switzerland. Her work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions at the Galerie de l’UQAM (Montréal), in Bangkok Art & Culture Centre (Thailand), at the Museo de Medicina Laboral (Real del Monte, Mexico), at the Galerie des arts visuels de l’Université Laval (Québec), and as part of the Rencontre internationale d’art performance de Québec (Le Lieu, 2012, 2014). She has received awards and grants, including the Première Ovation in 2012-2013, SODEC in 2016, and several travel and creation grants from the CALQ in 2014, 2015, 2016. Marie-Claude Gendron has a BFA from the Université de Laval and an MA in Visual and media studies from UQAM.

Artist’s website

Katherine-Josée Gervais

In her art practice, Katherine-Josée Gervais aims to underline the incoherent meaning of our existence. Her projects take on a critical perspective that is both political and poetic, and which comments on human relationships while reflecting on the connections we maintain between the various facets of our identity. Her research interests include the development of the artist’s personae, the performative act and the authenticity of the artist’s voice. Most recently, her creative process has given room to the unexpected, and encounters with citizens of all communities during performances that involve the public, and allow a direct mediation of the work.

After several years spent working in the construction industry, Katherine-Josée Gervais turned her focus to her university studies. She is currently completing her PhD in Studio Art at UQAM. She has exhibited her work in group exhibitions throughout Québec and in France. Having held key positions within the organization RIPA (Rencontre inter-universitaire de performance actuelle) since 2012, she has also implemented and co-organized several artistic events, including LEGS, GPS: système de positionnement global, Architecture des possibles, and she is co-founder and co-director of the micropublisher Boucane.