SOUND ART INSTALLATIONS IN PUBLIC SPACES

12-18 MAY, 2025

DOWNTOWN VICTORIAVILLE

FREE – Monday – Friay, 9 AM – 7 PM ; Saturday 10 AM – 8 PM ; Sunday 10 AM – 5 PM

Visite guidée pour groupe scolaire, communautaire ou entreprise : écrivez-nous
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The Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville invites you to experience an adventure in sound, the circuit of ten sound art installations in public spaces. Audiences of all ages will love taking an active part in the creation of the show: they’ll be able to touch, explore and discover hidden sounds, while learning to perceive space in a different way.

The circuit of sound art installations presented at FIMAV transform public spaces and offer moments of intrigue and surprise, where movement and sound meet in poetic ways, an immersive experience in which to marvel at the metaphysical beauty of sound. A fun and enriching experience with contemporary art to share with the whole family.

E pur si muove !

The Italian expression “E pur si muove” is attributed to Galileo, apparently more legend than historical fact: “And yet it turns!” or, more literally, as “And yet it moves!”, evoking the idea that the Earth is in motion, despite the objections of authorities of Galileo’s age. Today, this phrase embodies the persistence of truth in the face of censorship, reminding us that scientific facts remain valid regardless of prevailing beliefs. It also musters determination in the face of injustice and blind authority. In its common meaning, “E pur si muove” is an emblem of intellectual freedom and the triumph of science over obscurantism, an idea that also resonates deeply in art and creativity.

In this sense, “And yet it moves!” applies aptly to the works presented this year. The circuit invites the audience to see and hear sound art installations that come to life, moving not only on site but even farther afield. For the first time in this context, artists will present a live creation, transforming and transporting the work through time and the space of the city. The expression ‘living art’ assumes full meaning here.

Attendees will discover a sonic, haptic, and visual journey on a skateboard, a mechanised light structure, a wind-activated cello orchestra, a takeover of a public space in sound, turntables transformed toward perpetual motion, a trio creating protean site-specific works, the mechanised walk of urban pedestrians, an object/animal that seemingly seeks to connect with the audience, and endless snow in constant movement. These poetic and dynamic offerings invite us not only to dream, but also to consider artistic responses to the current geopolitical climate and overarching uncertainty in our own ways, on a human scale. They therefore point to the universal.


Érick d’Orion, Sound Art Installation Curator

1- MAX BOUTIN
« Texturologie vibratoire »
France

An experimental multimedia installation employing a ‘SkateCam’ − a skateboard equipped with an camera that captures the sounds and vibrations of the urban ground.

These video sequences are projected onto an oblique concrete screen where the surface of the ground moves at full speed, echoing the sounds of the skateboard produced by the friction of the wheels. This hypnotic kinetics reveals an invisible musicality of the city, due to the skateboard rolling in the grooves of the urban materiality, like a needle on a vinyl record. This sensory immersion is heightened by a wooden haptic module that transmits vibrations under visitors’ feet, using tactile transducers. Between two sequences, when the skateboard and its sounds come to a halt, the visitor’s gaze turns to a second video projection in the background to contemplate the overall shots of the places travelled through, whose varied urban soundscape is spatialised around the work.

« Texturologie vibratoire » is thus a sensory transposition where the audience can, for a moment, experience the texturology of skateboarding.

BIO

Max Boutin is a multidisciplinary artist-researcher currently completing his doctorate in art studies and practices at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). His thesis develops a texturological approach in which the skateboard is likened to an instrument, making it possible to play with urban rhythms and textures. This consideration gave rise to a visual, sound, and haptic installation entitled « Texturologie vibratoire ».

His research and creative work are part of the art-skate which he has recently mapped and in the skates studies, an international and transdisciplinary academic field devoted to the study of skateboarding. With his collaborators Brian Glenney and Paul O’Connor, he co-authored The Sonic Spectrums of Skateboarding: From Polarity to Plurality (2023) and more recently The Skater’s Ear: A Sensuous Complexity of Skateboarding Sound (2025), two articles on the acoustic world of skateboarding.

Her research is supported by Hexagram, an international research and creation network based in Montreal, and by the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et Culture, which funded her doctorate as well as her postdoctoral studies in sound composition, which began in spring 2025 at the Laboratoire Formes – Ondes at the Université de Montréal.
https://www.maxboutin.com

2-THÉÂTRE RUDE INGÉNIERIE
« Mur lumineux »
Quebec | World Premiere
This mechanical sculpture is both luminous and sonic, and consists of a series of ‘scrollers,’ outdated lighting devices that produce a series of coloured filters to scroll in front of a projector. In sum, the piece generates a malleable mosaic that reacts to ambient sounds by tracing variable geometries while generating music from its own mechanics as it unfolds.

BIO

Founded in 2013 as a structure to support the increasing activity of a trio of artists, Bruno Bouchard, Philippe Lessard Drolet, and Pascal Robitaille, TRI is now a recognised multidisciplinary production company in Quebec City, with work that combines sound, image, object, engineering, and the living world. The artists’ creative processes focus foremost on forging fertile sites from which complex, unique, and sensitive artistic forms can emerge.

TRI advocates using disciplines as tools or material rather than as ends in themself, in the search of new connections between practices, new writing that deploys languages the projects themselves inspire. The group also prioritises developing numerous original productions as collaborations with various milieux.

TRI is a laboratory of ongoing research, malleable and free, driven by a desire to contribute to the dynamism of the artistic landscape, and appealing to the sensibility and intelligence of the audience. Their work invites the viewer to a museum in motion, sculpts space in time.

3- FÉLIX BLUME
« Cello Suites »
France | Canadian Premiere

Arizona is home to ancient windmills, remnants of the American dream and westward expansion. « Cello Suites » gives them new life as they bow the strings of a cello placed at the centre of the space, producing an improvised suite. Asleep, these iron ghosts accompany the dreams of desert travellers. Their sound resonates, evoking the passage of migrants in search of a better life. The video installation shows these ephemeral concerts on vertical screens, inviting attendees to discover this open-air orchestra playing the whims of the wind.

« Cello Suites » is a co-presentation of FIMAV and centre Avatar. The project was developped with the support of DRAC Occitanie.

BIO

Félix Blume is a sound artist, a sound recordist, and a sound engineer. He currently lives in a small village in the south of France, where he grew up. He has worked on numerous projects in Mexico, Brazil, and other Latin American countries. He shapes sound as material for his sound pieces, videos, actions, and installations. His creative process is often collaborative through engagement with local communities. He uses public space both as a site for experimentation and as a venue for presentation. Listening is at the heart of his practice, a process that goes beyond sound and invites audiences to grasp the imperceptible and fosters encounters through sound. His work focuses on the beings that surround us –– the buzz of a bee, a turtle’s footsteps, cricket song –– as well as the dialogue between humans and the natural or urban contexts they inhabit. He is interested in myths and their contemporary interpretation, and in what voices tell us beyond words.

His works have been broadcast on radio around the world, and he has presented his work at numerous international festivals and exhibitions.

He was awarded the ‘Paysage Sonore’ prize (2018) for his video-sound piece Curupira, bête des bois and the Pierre Schaeffer Prize (2015) for his work Les Cris de Mexico at the Phonurgia Nova Awards festival. His film Lumières du Désert won the First Prize for International Short Film at the L’Alternativa CCCB festival (2021) and the Grand Prix for Video Art at the Côté Court festival (2021).

He has presented his work at international festivals and museums such as the Thailand Biennial (Th), Manifesta (Es), Museo Reina Sofia (Es), Centre Pompidou (Fr), CTM Berlin, Domaine de Kerguéhennec (Fr), Berlinale Forum Expanded (De), Rotterdam IFFR (Nl), LOOP Barcelona (Es), Sonic Acts (Nl), Donau Festival (At), Tsonami Arte Sonoro (Cl), Fonoteca Nacional (Mx), Ex Teresa (Mx), CCCB Barcelona (Es), Laboratorio Arte Alameda (Mx), among others.

His works are part of the collections of the Centre National des Arts Plastiques (Fr), the Universidad Autónoma de México (Mx), Klankenbos (Be), the Musée Réattu (Fr) and the Institut National des Beaux Arts du Mexique (Mx), among others.

4- LÉA BOUDREAU & SIMON CHIOINI
« Bruit de front »
Quebec | World Premiere

This site-specific installation and performance explores and adapts to the specific location where it is presented. It playfully investigates the material, as well as the environmental and architectural particularities, of the site using DIY electronics, sound, and other unusual found objects. Amplifying and highlighting a variety of noises and sounds often inaudible to humans or easily missed, the project foregrounds the unique and living character of each place through attention to detail and active listening.

BIO

The duo of Léa Boudreau and Simon Chioini formed in 2024 for the exploration of sound, material, and the phenomenology of place. Considering a site as a more-than-human being, the artists create works with and within specific locations, paying particular attention to notions of coexistence, shared knowledge, and active listening. Combining their respective skills, moving from electronic design to audio art and performance, their duo practice unfolds through installation, performance, and site-specific forms. Their collaboration emerged from studio meetings organised by Chioini in 2023-24 where they explored sound and place through spontaneous site-specific performances, as well as from their participation in the roundtable, “What is the future of electroacoustics?,” organised as part of a research day for the 75th anniversary of musique concrète at the Université de Montréal.

  

Individually, both Boudreau and Chioini have presented their work internationally. They have received numerous professional and academic recognitions in recent years, including scholarships from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and prizes in the Canadian Electroacoustic Community’s Jeu de temps competition (Boudreau, 2019-20; Chioini, 2020). Boudreau holds a bachelor’s degree in Digital Music from Université de Montréal and a master’s degree in StudioArts (Intermedia) from Concordia University. She will be the artist-in-residence at the Insectarium de Montréal through July 2025, where she is creating a work inspired by the rich and surprising world of insects. Chioini is a doctoral student in composition and sound creation at the Université de Montréal, where his research explores the relationship between sound, the environment, and social dynamics.