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EXO – Beyond Borders
Festival ELEKTRA 2025
18 to 22 June 2025
ABOUT
The new edition of the ELEKTRA festival invites you to the edge of the unknown, to unexplored territories between artificial intelligence, exobiology and parallel realities. Through audiovisual performances, participative experiences and interactive works, “EXO, Beyond Borders” questions our relationship with alterity, technology and worlds beyond our perception.
In an immersive urban theater experience, put on a spacesuit for a mission of exploration through the city. Three evenings of audiovisual performances will take you on a journey of sound and light. Enjoy a collective virtual reality experience in the brand-new ELEKTRA Virtual Museum (EVM).
OPENING NIGHT
Come along to the opening of the ELEKTRA festival on Wednesday 18 June. This is your chance to find out more about the festival's programme with the artists and partners.
During the evening, take part in two free preview performances:
→ 8pm: A participatory urban exploration in a spacesuit, devised by Le Clair Obscur: a fictional mission through the city that questions our relationship with the environment, technology and otherness.
→ 9pm: An audio-laser performance by Kristian North and Mike Cassidy, where light and sound merge in a never-before-seen experience.
Smoke Screen
Augurs Wand (Mike Cassidy and Kristian North)
Smoke Screen is a visual music performance for lasers exploring boundaries, borders, smoothness, and striation in actual and virtual spaces, responding to current geopolitics and planetary conditions. The work uses a custom laser synthesiser to simultaneously generate shape, colour, and sound diffused by three lasers and a speaker array. With this instrument the artists explicitly cultivate the entoptic phenomena and perceptual illusions created by integrating sound with laser light, exploring the thresholds between shared and individual hallucinatory states.
Wednesday, June 18th
Starting 7pm
Performances at 8pm
VENUE
Cœur des Sciences – UQAM
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Free event, no reservation required.
Bar service.
ELEKTRA VIRTUAL MUSEUM [EVM]
Explore a new kind of museum in a free virtual reality tour.
The ELEKTRA Virtual Museum [EVM] is a new project developed by ELEKTRA that presents a selection of 3D works by Quebec artists. Equipped with a VR headset, discover 5 floors that show how these cutting-edge technologies can create new forms of artistic expression.
With works by Baron Lanteigne, Bill Vorn, Chun Hua Catherine Dong, Eyez Li, Philippe Internoscia, Skawennati, Kevin Dubeau, Tanya St-Pierre and Philippe-Aubert Gauthier, Yan Breuleux.
OPENING HOURS
From June 19th to June 22nd
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1pm to 6pm
Time slot every 30 minutes
PRICE
Free
VENUE
Cœur des Sciences – UQAM
→ Directions
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
One ticket gives you access to a 30-minute slot that allows you to visit the entire virtual museum.
Ages 8 and over.
#EXOTERRITOIRE
Put on a spacesuit and set off on a guided exploration of the city!
#EXOTERRITOIRE is an immersive theatre experience that takes the audience to the heart of an urban space mission. Presented in the form of a mission that is both scientific and poetic, the experience invites us to rethink human presence and planetary life.
You can take part in the experience in two ways: wearing a spacesuit as an astronaut or as a spectator with a headset (spacesuit and headset provided).
This multidisciplinary experience is the fruit of collaboration between a director and digital artist, a science fiction writer, an actress and researchers from CNES / Observatoire de l'Espace.
Created by Le Clair Obscur
Direction and sound: Frédéric DESLIAS
Author: Norbert MERJAGNAN
Artistic collaborator: Jana KLEIN
Scientific collaborator: Caroline FREISSINET (CNRS/LATMOS)
PERFORMANCES
Thursday, June 19th
-
1pm to 3pm
-
5pm tp 7pm
Friday, June 20th
-
1pm to 3pm
-
5pm to 7pm
Saturday, June 21st
-
1pm to 3pm
-
4pm tp 6pm
PRICE
Free
VENUE
Cœur des Sciences – UQAM
→ Directions
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Approximately 4 to 5 kilometres, about 50 minutes of slow walking. Comfortable shoes and weather-appropriate clothing recommended. Ages 7 and over.
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ARTISTS TALKS
Take part in an afternoon of exchange with 5 local and international artists.
During these 20-minute presentations, discover the work of 5 artists:
→ Vivien Roubaud and Ethel Lilienfeld, invited by Wallonie-Bruxelles International
→ Gazaebal, founding member of WeSA
→ Eyez Li and Alizée Armet, in residence at World Creation Studio
Presentations will be followed by a Q&A and networking session.
Event in collaboration with World Creation Studio, KIKK festival, Wallonie-Bruxelles International and WESA.
TIME
Thursday, June 19th
4pm to 6 pm
PRICE
Free (booking required)
VENUE
World Creation Studio
→ Directions
EXHIBITION: ON AIR
On Air
Peter van Haaften, Michael Montanaro, Garnet Willis
The audience speaks into the bells of two horns. Sound is inhaled into the apparatus. Collected voices become chaotically entangled inside an expanding balloon. Inside the balloon, words collide and recombine. Over time, the pressure becomes too great, and the valves open. Voices are forced through steel cornets towards an elastic membrane, where friction compels them to incandesce. An iris opens, slowly releasing the luminous voice towards a series of lenses and mirrors. From here follows a choral harmony of mirrors that builds into a final cacophonous performance of sound, rhythm and light.
Materials: Found objects and DIY electronics
Peter van Haaften: Creative direction, concept and design, composition, sound design, interaction design, programming, electronics, acoustics.
Michael Montanaro: Creative direction, concept and design, visual design / realization, interaction design, optomechanical design, fabrication.
Garnet Willis: Concept execution, lead designer, engineering, sculptural realization, acoustics, mechatronics, testing, tooling and fabrication
Special Thanks: Martin Marier, Nima Navab, Thierry Dumont, Tatev Yesayan, Carolie Delisle, Dirk Zylstra, Guillaume Fortin, Eureka Lighting, Nichia Corporation
Photo: © Jonathan Goulet
This artwork was made possible through the generous support of Canada Council for the Arts, Conseil des Arts de Montréal, Fonds de recherche du Québec, MOULIN DE L’IMPRÉVU, Concordia University-Montréal.
OPENING NIGHT
Thursday, June 26th: 6pm to 9pm
TIME
Friday, June 27th: 2pm to 9pm
Saturday, June 28th: 12pm to 6pm
Sunday, June 29th: 12pm to 6pm
PRICE
Free (no booking required)
VENUE
Eastern Bloc
→ Directions
VENUES
PHI Center
407 Saint-Pierre St.
Montreal, QC H2Y 2M3
Cœur des sciences – UQAM
175 Président-Kennedy Av.
Montreal, QC H2X 3P2
→ Directions
PARTNERS AND SUPPORT
GOVERNMENTAL INSTITUTIONS
CULTURAL PARTNERS
MEDIA
SPONSORS