Chambre Blanche

February 19 to April 24, 2022

For its tenth edition, Manif d'art is once again infiltrating artist-run centers in Quebec City and the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec from February 19 to April 24, 2022. Curator Steven Matijcio brings together local and international artists to reflect on artistic practices that employ illusory devices.

The theme of this edition is inspired by magical realism, an artistic current that promotes the spontaneous manifestation of elements that seem magical, supernatural and irrational, which arise in reality. Manif d'art 10 - Illusions Are Real will be an opportunity to explore artistic practices that employ trompe-l'oeil, hijacking strategies and sleight of hand. This reflection will be an opportunity to question several issues of our daily lives flooded by illusions, from artificial flavors to disinformation campaigns.

As part of this event, LA CHAMBRE BLANCHE is pleased to welcome Canadian artist David Rokeby, who will present two interactive works.

The first work is Timbre Space (2021), an installation that presents an invisible architecture of sound timbre that can be explored physically. The 512 sounds that make up Timbre Space are tuned to the musical note "F" over a range of octaves. These sounds range from the purest sinusoidal tones, through the slightly more complex timbres of classical instruments, to sustain note snippets of popular music, to complex machine sounds that derive their tonal "F" from the oscillations of the industrial motors.

The second proposition is called Minimal Object (With Time On Your Hands) (2012-2019). This is an installation that explores the invisible tactility and spatial presence of sound. A blank canvas is hung on the wall. It is covered with the fabric usually used to protect the fronts of the speakers. There are two speakers embedded in the canvas, barely visible through the fabric. Over 300 sound objects react to participants’ hands, playing their sound through the speakers at positions in the stereo sound field. These sounds involve several rhythmic repetitions which, in a sense, measures and expresses time. The physical object works as a sort of vertical pedestal. All in all, it is a sculpture of sonic possibilities projecting from its own surface.

Photo: Courtesy of the artist, 2012.

David Rokeby is an installation artist and is considered one of the pioneers of interactive art. Born in 1960 in Tillsonburg, Ontario, he is based in Toronto, where he studied at the Ontario College of Art. Since 1982, Rokeby’s works have been exhibited internationally, including at the Venice Biennale in 1986, where he presented one of his emblematic works, Very Nervous System. In 2000, he won a prize from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) and in 2002, he won the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts.