What it is

by Genevieve Paiement

Celebrating all things multidisciplinary, the first ever Vasistas festival is here to show us all that multi-tasking art is where it's at. Vasistas ("What is that?" in German) is the place to find installations that double as performances and/or soundscapes, interactive theatre that's Internet-compatible and human projection screens in perpetual motion.

One such multi-fabulous video-art experiment is Quebecer Éric Gagnon's Fleuve. "The title comes from the Hindu conception of the imagination as an imaginary river that flows above our heads," Gagnon explains. "The role of humans is to swim in this river where creative ideas come from. Fleuve is my physical interpretation of this idea"

The work melds performance, music, video and live animation, with Gagnon projecting videos of landscapes and aquatic images onto six floating Plexiglas screens. Then, filmmaker and former NFB animator Pierre Hébert scratches images onto film reels, which are then projected. Frédéric Lebrasseur plays the drums. Be part of the action, Feb. 15-16, 8:30 p.m. at the Théâtre La Chapelle (3700 Ste-Dominique). For more info call 843-7738 or visit www.cam.org/~tlc.

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