For the sixth edition of their digital creation / arts-science residency exchange initiated in 2015, La Chambre Blanche (artist-run center dedicated to experimentation in visual and digital arts – Quebec) and Transcultures (Centre for digital and sound cultures – La Louvière – Belgium) continues the formula associating an artist with a researcher or professional from the cultural milieu, around the same prospective creation.
For the 2021-22 season, Nathalie Cimino, founder and director of reth!nk, a Belgian curating and exhibition design workshop, and Quebec intermedia artist Dominic Lafontaine were selected by the partners.
After a first period of research and design at La Chambre Blanche, the two residents start a second period of production in Belgium. A public presentation and a publication of a critical texts by Nathalie Cimino on this common experience is planned for the spring.
FablabLab – The differentiated fablab that did not exist
During their first collaboration at the Chambre Blanche in Quebec at the end of 2021, Dominic Lafontaine and Nathalie Cimino had given themselves the mission of exploring the codes of digital culture… without using a numerically controlled machine or producing a single line. of code. From this constraint was born a collection of ready-mades giving the illusion of digital art and a quick and dirty curation in zine format.
In Mons, Belgium, in June 2022, this time hosted by Transcultures in the offices of Reth!ink at the Maison du Design, the duo focused their investigations on a highly symbolic object of digital culture: the fablab. Machines, spaces, users, productions, language…
Here the rule of the game is to feed a generative antagonistic network from Epinal images associated with the maker culture, found in image banks and on the web.
An invitation to observe with distance and humor the reflection of our counter-cultural fantasies.
The result is presented, in a friendly atmosphere, at the workplace of the tandem which has become that of the Fablablab. Maison du design (Mons) on June 30 from noon. A debate on the challenges of this project and more broadly of the joint research-creation residencies is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. (with a free drink). It will be moderated by Philippe Franck (director of Pépinières).
Nathalie Cimino (Fr/Be)
Nathalie Cimino is the founder and director of reth! Nk, a curating and exhibition design workshop located in Mons, Belgium.
Nathalie is a specialist in transdisciplinary creation and its mediation with the general public. It collaborates on a daily basis with institutions, artists, researchers and collectives in the design of cultural initiatives that bring the arts, sciences, techniques and society into dialogue.
It also designs, in partnership with the academic world, collective intelligence tools adapted to the world of arts and culture with the aim of fostering innovation through design, collaborative creation and mastery of use. On these subjects, she regularly intervenes as a trainer for various Belgian and French institutions.
Nathalie obtained a double Degree in Law – History of Arts and Archeology as well as a Master in Arts and Culture from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.
Before founding reth!nk, Nathalie worked with the Kikk Festival (Namur) as arts-science project manager and the Pass, the science city of French-speaking Belgium, as director of exhibitions and partnerships.
It is part of the association Les muséographes (Fr) and of the “Implementation of common spaces” (Fr) and Station culture (Be) collectives.
Among her references: the transformation of the Salle des Machines du collier de Crachet into an exhibition-laboratory of the future, the “Nature 2.0” exhibition (Pass, Belgium), the museographic studies of “Play” (BME- City of Brussels), the participatory exhibition “Art and material” (Cultural Pole of the Visitation – Thonon-les Bains, France), the transformation of the Maison Folie de Mons into a place of life (Mons, Belgium) as well as the museography and curator of the Jean Lescarts City and Society Museum (Mons, Belgium).
Dominic Fontaine (Qc)
Dominic Lafontaine, born in 1979 in Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada, is a visual artist, poet and musician from the Timiskaming First Nation (Algonquins).
The artist’s work is associated with a very diverse series of techniques and mediums: writing, performance, video, installation, music. His works explore notions of identity, meaning and cultural belonging. He seeks to synthesize his knowledge of Aboriginal art history with new media in order to redefine the aesthetic vocabulary of contemporary Anishinabe art. Dominic Lafontaine is a member of the filmmakers’ collective Wapikoni Mobile.
In 2018, he designed the Déranger creative laboratory in Winnipeg, with the aim of giving artists from aboriginal communities the chance to prototype media works. In 2019, he created and exhibited the work Neither Neither on “Invisible Energies” with the logistical support of the National Film Board of Canada.
Infos
- First residency : Autumn/Winter 2021 @ La Chambre Blanche Québec
- Second residency : Spring 2022 @ Transcultures Belgique
- rethink.cool – dohlicious.com
Production
- Transcultures, La Chambre Blanche
- Residency at Transcultures Mons + Rethink @ Maison du Design Mons
- In the framework of the Permanent Joint Commission (CMP) Québec/Wallonie-Bruxelles.
- transcultures.be – chambreblanche.qc.ca
- With the support of: Wallonie-Bruxelles International, du Ministère de la Culture de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles.
- La Ville de Québec, le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, ministère de la Culture et des Communications de Québec, ministère des Relations internationales et de la Francophonie de Québec, Conseil des Arts du Canada et des European Pepinieres of Creation.
