TRAHIR (DISTORT)
2003

This audiovisual performance is the first collaboration between Caroline Hayeur and Myléna Bergeron as a duo.  Bergeron specializes in experimental electronic music. With this project Caroline Hayeur begins her exploration of moving images through the use of new media and technology.

The performance is an audiovisual journey guided by the theme of  “exploration of the territory”. It is divided into a dozen poetic micro-narratives adapted to various contexts.  By playing with abstractions and, sometimes, omissions (like the blank space on a music sheet) DISTORT has a rhythm, a texture and a range that the artists create through a complex weaving of images and sounds.

Once.Twice: Festival of Sound and Video Art, Baltimore (USA), April 17th 2004 © Bruce Hassuk

The advent of software such as iMovie, for example, has allowed for digital animation of photographs and turning them into moving images.  Change in technological tools leads to change in artists' practices, as is the case for Caroline Hayeur in this project.  Her formal approach here is based on “the aesthetics of slowness”, leading the viewer to experience her photo material in a new way.  The approach is firmly photographic (fades, blurs, zoom and other explorations) and at the same time influenced by the videographic tools she uses, reorienting the message and allowing the images to be reconstructed in space and time -- and in contrast to the media images we are bombarded by daily.

Festival MUTEK, Complexe Ex-Centris, Montréal, 29 mai 2003 © Caroline Hayeur

In 2006, the Ying Yang Ladies duo was born from this first visual and audio collaboration.

TRAHIR (DISTORT)

Artists: Caroline Hayeur (images) and Myléna Bergeron (sound)

Technical description:
Audiovisual performance, big screen, around 45 min.

Exhibition history:
2004 – CHRONOPÉE A piece, as a single-band video, 5.45 min., Le Bruit des Choses program, Festival International du film sur l’art – FIFA
2004 – Once.Twice: Festival of Sound and Video Art, Baltimore, USA
2004 – Soirée MIX SESSIONS, Société des arts technologiques – SAT, Montréal
2004 – First edition of the MutekCL festival, Valparaiso, Chile
2003 – Centre d’art et de diffusion CLARK, Montreal
2003 – MUTEK festival, 4^th edition, Ex-Centris, Montreal

 
Soirée MIX SESSIONS, Société des arts technologiques – SAT, Montréal, 12 avril 2004 © Nancy Bergeron
Festival MUTEK.CL, 1e édition, Muelle Baron, Valparaiso (Chili), 9 janvier 2004 © Aïcha Raihani

Myléna Bergeron

Having studied both voice and electroacoustic music, Myléna Bergeron has a penchant for finely-polished work. Her compositions centre on original field recordings, to which she applies digital treatments and tight production skills. Her new tracks retain the evocative powers of the original sound recordings, which are embellished rather than obscured by her manipulations and digital effect. While Bergeron's approach is highly personal and somewhat imbued with feelings of nostalgia and sadness, the end results are decidedly original and refreshing, prompting repeated listenings. For her MUTEK performance, visuals are served by Mademoiselle H.

            – MUTEK