Winter in Summer

hENe_coverOn June 11, at 9 p.m., Winter in Summer was projected onto a wall of the Gamman House, located at 306 Cyr Avenue, in Vanier. The projection consisted of a collection of videos curated by Izabel Barsive. The artists Raymond Aubin, Nadine Bariteau, Paula Franzini, Charlotte L’Orage, Doris Lamontagne, Komi Seshie and Laurent Vaillancourt participated in the creation of the videos.

The viewer saw the reflections, sometimes spiritual or philosophical, each artist had on the effect of winter in their everyday lives, as well as their emotions: discomfort facing another season, time of reflection, love becoming hate… The theme forced them to curl up and to, inevitably, immerse themselves the way the cold season does.

The work:

HiverenEte_Charlotte"

Charlotte L’OrageEntière
Winter gives birth to spring. The end of a cycle is also its beginning. Entière explores the uneasiness which haunts the process of renewal. Because everything stops? But the life between my fingers is more alive than ever. It immobilizes me with its abundance.

HiverenEte_Doris

Doris LamontagneNunc dimittis : il est temps.
First snow. Its mesmerizing beauty invites one to play. Winter has arrived. The cold has settled in. It lengthens. It is time to step back, time to reconsider. It is time to express one’s gratitude. It is time to mourn and move on to other things. Happy memories will persist.

HiverenEte_Komi

Komi SeshieSur le pont des pionniers
The sensation of winter!
In the forest in winter, the trees decorated with lacings of snow dazzle us. Noise does not exist any more, our minds become calm. At the crossing of a bridge over a brook, a cold and silent breeze envelops us. The brook water circulating under the crystalline ice no longer breathes. The atmosphere, veiled by a milky membrane, offers a peaceful view.

Laurent

Laurent VaillancourtAmour’haine
Ah, how they are beautiful, the first snowflakes falling softly at the beginning of winter. Then, deep coldness arrives, spoiling our enjoyment. The snow creaks underfoot, we can no longer stand the lack of light, the cold and the heaps of snow make movement awkward.
The video is assembled from my photos of a little spruce. The soundtrack is the creaking of footsteps in the snow. Our eyes like, our ears scream!

HiverenEte_Nadine

Nadine BariteauRetrieving
One says sometimes that if one had left an minute earlier or later things would have happened differently. This video is the visual representation of the only moment, a memory of my life that I wish I was able to take back. Retrieving was my first visual testament after having survived a car accident in which I lost my mother Lucille.

HiverenEte_Paula

Paula FranziniDuet for winter diary and winter river
This video is a semi-abstract ambiance piece dominated by nostalgia. It is inspired by a winter ’69 diary of my mother’s — particularly one entry about a New Year’s day family ski trip; by current imagery of my surroundings on the Ottawa river in winter — which remind me of my childhood home; and by photos from my childhood taken by my father.

HiverenEte_Raymond

Raymond AubinConvergence
Winter causes us to lose our bearings; the scenery is wrapped in cushioned silence and monochromatic erasure.
Convergence presents the long-take of a wandering in the winter forest between a high-key image and a black musical score. The same wandering is replayed in superposition and in transparency at different play speeds.

 

 
 
 
 

 
 

 
 
 

“In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.”
Albert Camus

Digital video is becoming more and more accessible through the use of inexpensive tools like smartphones or cameras meant for amateurs that professional artists have adopted in recent years. Editing these videos is also easier thanks to software that is increasingly intuitive. This opens up a limitless field of exploration for artists who create video art pieces. The Winter in Summer project, opened to both experienced and novice artists, obliges them to contemplate winter’s effect on their daily lives, but also on their emotions. For some, this is a spiritual or philosophical reflection. The artists see and hear winter, which they capture despite their preconceived notions and physical constraints. Winter pushes us to curl up if it is experienced here in Canada. Our relationship with the environment requires daily adaptation and challenges us physically and mentally, just like producing the videograms that also alienate us does by compelling artists to master tools that may intimidate them. Winter also forces us to remain humble before nature. Whether you are used to the season or not, immersion is inevitable. And while it was possible to understand winter in regions without snow or ice, for artists from the north, the season still remains etched in the mind’s and body’s memories.
In the summer these audio-visual projects will be projected on a wall of the Gamman House in Ottawa’s Vanier neighbourhood. The public must face a season they often wish to forget, obliging them to rethink the present and relive moments from the past.
These non-narrative art video pieces are evocative. They offer the artist the option of exploring tools without having to strive for perfection, which obsesses creators of commercial projects.
The hours spent on their projects enabled artists to genuinely experience winter, a season many deem to be monochrome. These video art pieces convey the artist and audience’s obligation to commune with winter in a shifted space-time. — Izabel Barsive, curator

 

The Centre d’artistes Voix Visuelle would like to thank the Ontario Arts Council, Canadian Heritage, and the City of Ottawa for their support.

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