14.08.2019

Dive into the Mutek universe - Journal Métro

Until September 2, Mutek presents the Hexadome installation in collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC). This sensory experience presents 10 audiovisual works, including a specially created by Montreal Herman Kolgen for the 20 th edition of the festival.

For three weeks, Hexadome, Berlin 's Institute for Sound and Music (ISM), gives the public a dozen audiovisual works. Sitting in the middle of a room plunged in the dark, everyone is invited to immerse themselves in the heart of a unique projection device on six screens and about fifty speakers.

Presented a week before the start of the international festival of digital creativity and electronic music , the experience is intended to be memorable for festival-goers. According to Alain Mongeau, founder and artistic director of MUTEK, Hexadome is a centerpiece of the celebrations of the 20th anniversary of the festival, like "a gift to Montrealers since it is the most important project since the beginning" .

Hexadome is an installation conceived as a platform for artists. It has already been programmed last year in the German capital and, more recently, in San Francisco. The videos, all of which have been designed by sound and image artists specifically for this immersive device, follow each other on the screens for nearly three and a half hours. And for the Canadian premiere, Herman Kolgen was invited by Mutek and ISM to participate in the project.

The award - winning Montreal artist has praised the "phenomenal" technical quality of Hexadome . "We are in a bubble and the sound quality is incredible. The images and screens are also fantastic. For an artist like me, it's unexpected to work on it, "he enthuses.

A unique vision

Retina (23 minutes) was therefore considered by Herman Kolgen for the device Hexadome , he immediately saw "as an instrument that would have almost anything biological". With all these circular screens, the artist could not help but think of the eye of a fly. "How, thanks to the many facets of our retina, do we succeed in connecting with the outside world?" He asks when presenting the exhibition to the press.

The artist even confesses to be subjugated by the vision of the world proper to each individual: "We think we see the same thing, but the reality is translated differently by each of us, it could apply to colors for example. All this fascinates me. "

He says he "worked from the impression of reality on our eye and how it is engraved in our memory. This image is distorted with time, we have memories of childhood and they evolve with us. Our relationship with the outside goes through our biology, but also by emotivity. This magical mix of these two aspects is unique to everyone. "

Herman Kolgen was also interested in the image overload we are facing today. "It's changed a lot since the last 50 years. We are in great demand, and it comes so fast back into our brain that it's hard to remember everything. It adds a very ephemeral side to the image. "

"How do the most important images get into our brain?" He continues.

The Mutek spirit

Alain Mongeau describes all the creations of Hexadome as "very Mutekian". Some artists have already participated in previous editions and, for those who have not had this opportunity so far, "they have their place in the festival," insists its founder.

For the 20 years of Mutek, the will was to rally the greatest number. "Many people find that Mutek is a niche festival, and Hexadome allows us to be mainstream. It is perfect that the project is found in the museum to challenge neophytes, "concludes Alain Mongeau.

To make the experience even more intense, several performances are also organized at the MAC by September 2nd. Herman Kolgen realize Retina in live August 25 at 18 am and 20 pm. On August 24 and 31 at 4 pm, it's an adapted projection of the movie Mother! by Darren Aronofsky by the New York collective Little Cinema to be held in Hexadome.

That's not all, three free installations are organized for the 20th edition of Mutek:

• From August 17 to 28 at the showroom of the Georges-Émile-Lapalme Cultural Space at Place des Arts
• August 20 to 24 at the Society for Arts and Technology
• August 23 and 24 at the 7-finger studios

Author: Amelie Revert

Publication: Journal Metro

Original article available here