11.05.2024 | Meetings, Concerts & exhibitions @ Transcultures Opening | Couvent d’Hautrage (Be)

Phonons & Photons - Alain Wergifosse (Be)

Photo/video/participative installation exhibition

In two corridors of the convent ambulatory, visual works by Alain Wergifosse are offered, including photos from the “Spectres & Neons” series taken in long exposure during walks in the depths of spectral neon nights, taken between 2004 and 2024,

This series is part of the concept of “retinal music” explored by the artist. Light modulates the gaze, just as the needle of a record player vibrating in the groove of a vinyl record transmits sound images to the ear; here the moving light transmits sound sensations through the eyes thanks to a little synesthetic imagination, in total silence.

These photographs, which are the size of a vinyl album cover, are supplemented by a few videos taken from the series Erosions & Microscopies, Flux & Densités that he produced in recent years, and more recently from the Materia project, as well as the participatory installation Resonant Table presented in the Transonic Lab.

Underlying these works, as sensorial as they are experimental, is a passion for feedback in different devices and the interaction between elements, the organic matter of sound, image and light.

Production : Transcultures

Alain Wergifosse

Belgian video artist and experimental musician having resided in Barcelona for 30 years, Alain Wergifosse has participated in countless sound projects solo and with groups such as Obmuz, Macromassa and Specop (in Spain).

For 10 years, he created interactive sounds and music for Marcel.lí Antúnez (founder of La Fura dels Baus). He co-organized the LEM and NoNoLogic festivals in Barcelona and published 3 albums: “Deep Gray Organics” in 1999 on the Geometrik label (Es), “Flux & Densités” in 2020 and the CD (+ booklet) “Spectres & Neons ” in 2022, both published by the Transonic (Be) label. In 2010, he composed the music for the film “Petite anatomy of the image” by Olivier Smolders.

He has produced numerous videos and immersive and sound installations regularly supported by Transcultures (and the City Sonic and Transnumériques festivals), the Wallonia-Brussels Federation and also, among others, by/for KIKK, Recyclart (Be), Zone Libre, European Pepinieres of Creation, and Vidéoformes (Fr), as well as concerts and sound and visual experimentation workshops.

alainwergifosse.com

Ce que j’ai exhumé + Foz Machine + Gestographe + Eyes well shut - Fred Chemama (Be)

For this visual artist and traveler, the artifacts mixed with plant matter are the resurgences of a fantasized and dreamed future. Born from this dialogue resulting from his carnal and loving relationship with the earth and objects found under the surface of the ground, with these buried dreams, these organic sculptures and installations are made of stones and rusty tools naturally intertwined with roots, or else, found nearby and then assembled.

Fred Chemama also exhibits two installations (the Foz Machine in the chapel and the Gestograph – interactive – in the refectory), selection of photos and texts linked to the notion of “gestography” (creating your own writing with gestures), color portraits of the Eyes well shut series and experimental films.

Production : Transcultures, in partnership with European Pepinieres of Creation, Mira 眯腊

Fred Chemama

“Photographer, videographer, and multimedia artist, Fred Chemama, also known as 眯腊 (mira), is a multidisciplinary artist who studied audiovisual production at ESRA Maroc and photography in France. He currently lives and works between Belgium, France, and his travels that lead him to encounter other artists and cultural institutions across Europe and beyond.

In the final year of his academic journey, he traveled to Mexico to create a series of underwater portraits of fishermen from the state of Oaxaca, using a reportage camera and an original waterproof casing. These portraits are now immersed in luminous casings where they decompose underwater, a process ongoing for several years. Over time, he has undertaken several long-exposure self-portrait projects.

Action, encounters, and a self-reflective approach towards capturing imagery from reality lie at the core of his artistic pursuit. This has led him to occasionally adopt an iconoclastic stance and create transient on-site installations using discarded ink ribbons sourced from souvenir photo booths.

Preconceived actions carried out collectively and the exploration of diverse processes in producing images “drawn from reality” stand as focal points of his initial approach, already casting doubt on the authority of photographic imagery as an informational conduit and instead, transforming it into what he truly feels: a pretext for the poetic gathering of individuals.

Today, 眯腊 continues to engage in experiments at the intersection of photography, video, and digital arts; exploring the realms of the body, light, movement, situation, and place within an approach connected to bodily action.

His recent projects of interactive installations (“cyclo-kino,” the “Gestographer,” the “Fōz machine”…) blend disciplines, mediums, and transcend them into playful and intriguing devices.”

fredchemama.net

Organa Mantra - Alain Wergifosse

Explorer of granular sound and visual materials, Alain Wergifosse offers, in the premiere, a free improvisation on the organ of the convent chapel moving from contemporary minimalism to baroque reminiscences and some electronic treatments.

Production : Transcultures

Présence et fantasmagorie (Foz Machine) - Fred Chemana

The Foz Machine is a phantasmagorical machine that reveals layers of presences, absences and memories. It’s a dark room and a mirror. The notions of present and past, of here and elsewhere, overlap reciprocally.

The Foz machine is here at the service of an audiovisual performance proposed by Fred Chemama alias Mira 眯腊 and Alain Wergifosse (live soundtrack). They take us on a still, sound and light journey, to meet the ectoplasms and spirits who inhabit the convent chapel.

Production : Transcultures, European Pepinieres of Creation, Mira 眯腊

Meetings

Alain Wergifosse – Transonic open studio

Sound, visual and multimedia artist Alain Wergifosse partnered with Transcultures to build the “Transonic Lab”, a studio and space allowing different sound and multimedia experiences. For this opening event, he installed his “Resonant Table” (participatory sound instrument) (which is initially part of his recent variable geometry exhibition project MATERIA) and will give mini concerts as an introduction to the creative exploratory possibilities of the “Transonic Lab”.

With the support of Transcultures

Meeting with Fred Chemama et Alain Wergifosse

Presentation of the unique approach of these creators-explorers of image and multimedia recently hosted in residence by Transcultures and also of their first collaboration on the occasion of this event.

Moderation of the debate : Philippe Franck (Transcultures)

A propos de Marie G - Rafael (Be/Kr)

Premiere of the new video by intermedia artist Rafael living between South Korea and his native Wallonia, hosted by Transcultures in a writing residency last March at the Hautrage convent which greatly inspired him as well as the personality of the last sister – Marie-Guylaine – who lived there until she was 99.

A polyphonic and multicultural dialogue (from Saint-Ghislain to Seoul) to try to re-imagine this singularly present/absent personality.

“Mirror, poetic, historiographical, portrait, voice, dissonance, cultural, temporal, random, digitalization, memory…”

leafar.be
Production : Transcultures, European Pepinieres of Creation, Alea

VIDÉOCOLLECTIFS (sélection Festival Videoformes 2024)

Selection of 3-minute videos (premiered at partner Festival Videoformes, France in March 2024) which offer a look at different cities around the world (from Paris to Seoul via Budapest).

Initiated by the relationist internationalist artist Natan Karczmar (Fr/Il/Ca) in 1984, the Videocollectives produced and broadcast, with the support of Vidéoformes (Fr) and Transcultures, in numerous countries and festivals, constitute living audio-visual testimonies and open to all (professionals and amateurs).

Supported by Videoformes and Transcultures.
videocollectifs.jimdofree.com

Selection

• Patos de Minas | José Vilmar Da Silva | 2023 | Minas Gerais
• Hi Séoul | Gabriel Soucheyre | 2024 | Séoul
• Quando Maria Me Fundou o Carnaval | Gabriel Mascaro | 2013 | Clermont-Ferrand
• ROOTS | Anne-Sophie Emard | 2022 | Kaunas
• CLFD XXIV | mille chevreaux | 2024 | Clermont-Ferrand
• BLUEBAEKDRAGON | Gabriel Soucheyre | 2024 | Séoul
• Turn Around | Justine Emard | 2014 | Sao Paulo
• Gwangju | tilensil | 2020 | Gwangju
• Cycling through Bergen-op-Zoom | Anton Koetsenruijter | 2023 | Bergen-op-Zoom
• Budapest Bufe v1.0 | Ijles Istvan, Jofeju Istvan | 2006 | Budapest
• Bp street | Martin D. Gabor, Zsidmond Bernathy | 2006 | Budapest
• Ekaterinbourg | Gabriel Soucheyre | 2021 | Ekaterinbourg
• Chanonat | Pierre Bouyer | 2024 | Chanonat
• Chanonat 2 | Pierre Bouyer | 2024 | Chanonat
• Memory | Andreas Mitropoulos | 2006 | Athènes
• Where are you  | Triny Prada | 2007 | Clermont-Ferrand
• Kuun Timantit | Aubery Raffin & Clementine Wozny | 2018 | Clermont-Ferrand
• Notre famille à tous | Run Youxiang | 2004 | Pékin