For this 39th edition of their international festival of hybrid and digital arts in Clermont-Ferrand, VIDEOFORMES has designed with Transcultures, a new partnership around the production of the work MATERIA by Belgian sound and visual artist Alain Wergifosse.
In residence at Transcultures (at the Hautrage convent) since the end of 2023, Alain Wergifosse first presented preparatory work during the PROTO MATERIA exhibition which was dedicated to him in November 2023 at the Tour de l’Espace Ockeghem, in partnership with Septem, the cultural centre of Saint -Ghislain (Be).
Alain Wergifosse presents this new installation and immersive project, a world premiere at VIDEOFORMES 2024, in the Chapelle de Beaurepaire space, in the center of Clermont Ferrand. He will also offer several performances in this same space throughout the festival, including a closing live performance on March 31. He will also present his work during the Rencontre @ Actes Numériques #5 on March 15 at the Espace municipal Georges Conchon.
In addition to this production, Transcultures will also support 3 new prizes “Emergences Video – European Pepinieres of Creation” during the VIDEFORMES 2024 International Video Competition which will be held on March 16 and 17 at the Salle Boris-Vian of the Maison de la Culture de Clermont- Ferrand.
14 > 31.03.2024 | MATERIA – Alain Wergifosse | Chapelle de Beaurepaire
MATERIA is a large immersive multi-channel video installation. The Belgian sound and visual artist defines it as “a journey of imaginary exploration inside matter in all its states and transmutations, navigating through liquid phases, flying over gaseous states, penetrating into solids, sometimes blinded by brightly colored plasmas or muffled by vibrations.
With a free and poetic outlook that has always been his since his beginnings, in the underground scene of Barcelona, in the 80s until his more recent works once back in his native Belgium in 2007, It is about ‘illustrate various vibrational phenomena, entropy and the intimate dynamisms of nature and the constantly transforming physical and chemical elements which compose it through some interactions between light, sound and matter in time and space to a free interpretation of string theory, antimatter and thermodynamics.
We also find the attraction of this untimely contemplative, for nature in its captivating abstraction, an escape from daily reality within a parallel universe that he considers too often ignored, a “desire to explore the world millimeter by inch. millimeter and to share my hallucinated, sometimes autistic view of this reality which turns its back on banality.
“Everything that I capture, using photography and optics, does indeed exist, such as these fog-stained reflections on the window in a bus or the shadow of dust. With digital technology, I recreate my own realities, complex circuits that give results that are increasingly close to nature itself. It’s a way of seeing the world in its microfissures, to kill boredom, a way of traveling anywhere, with or without a computer, letting yourself be hypnotized by things that move, pure movement, where there is no words, no humans, also a form of down-to-earth scientific mysticism.”
16 > 17.03.2024 | Video Emergences – European Creative Incubators Price | Salle Boris-Vian
The European Pepinieres of Creation (supported, since 2018, by Transcultures Europe), an international network promoting mobility and international collaborations between artists and cultural structures with particular attention to emergences, creation/research relationships and intermedia practices, are joining forces with VIDEOFORMES to support young talents in today’s audio-visual and digital creation, by offering 3 prizes for artists from all countries aged under 35.
The international jury will be particularly attentive to:
- to the imaginary dimension and poetic quality of the work
- looking at the contemporary world, its challenges and its changes
- mastery of the chosen technical means
- dynamic and personalized links between image and sound
Aesthetic hybridity will be favored here rather than videos that are more directly “documentary”, “fictional” or even too close to the classic “clip”.
In addition to the prize (in cash), the winning works will benefit from dissemination and promotion in the Transcultures Europe/Pépinières de Création network.
VIDEOFORMES (Fr)
Trend Observatory, laboratory, producer, and disseminator of emerging art forms in which digital technologies and poetry shape possible worlds, VIDEOFORMES organizes an annual international festival of hybrid and digital arts in Clermont-Ferrand and reports on the effervescence of multifaceted creations: installations, videos, performances, virtual realities…
Within the event, dynamic encounters with various professionals are open as part of the Digital Acts and address artistic, cultural, and societal themes.
Since 1986, the year of the first festival, VIDEOFORMES has attracted the greatest names in video art and digital arts: Nam June Paik, Steina and Woody Vasulka, Ed Emschwiller, Robert Cahen, Bill Viola, Gary Hill, John Sanborn, Jacques-Louis and Danielle Nyst, Michel Jaffrenou, Klaus vom Bruch, Bruce Nauman, Thierry Kuntzel, Studio Azzurro, Juan Downey, Ko Nakajima, Gianni Toti, Reynold Reynolds, Catherine Ikam, Alain Fleischer, Tania Mouraud, Grégory Chatonsky, Miguel Chevalier…
In the same spirit of disseminating innovative art, VIDEOFORMES welcomes many young artists and has presented the first works of artists such as Pierrick Sorin, Rosangela Renno, Lucas Bambozzi, Golnaz Behrouznia, Mihai Grecu, Hee Won Lee, Momoko Seto, Benjamin Nuel, Philipp Artus, Gabriel Mascaro, Fanny Bauguil, Samuel Rousseau, Boris Labbé…
VIDEOFORMES hosts artists in residence every year, participates in national and international cultural events, offers a program of multidisciplinary experimental performances (VIDEOBARS), a digital magazine (Turbulences Vidéo | Digital and Hybrid Arts), digital archives, and a program of actions in Artistic and Cultural Education.
Informations
- 14 > 31.03.2024 | MATERIA (installation)
- 15.03.2024 | Alain Wergifosse – Artist presentation
- 16 > 17.03.2024 | Pepinières price
- 31.03.2024| Alain Wergifosse – ending performance
- VIDEOFORMES Festival
- Several places @ Clermont-Ferrand
- festival2024.videoformes.com – videoformes.com
Production
- Alain Wergifosse receives support from: VIDEOFORMES, Wallonia-Brussels Federation, SCAN Fund from DRAC and the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region, Transcultures, European Creative Hubs, Magmas & Volcanoes Laboratory (UCA/CNRS), University of Clermont-Auvergne.
- VIDEOFORMES receives support from: Ministry of Culture / DRAC Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, City of Clermont-Ferrand, Clermont-Auvergne-Metropolis, European Capital of Culture 2028 project, Departmental Council of Puy-de-Dôme, Regional Council of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, and SCAM.
