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© Antonin De Bemels, Mouthface, 2007

Video / Clip : New program on Vithèque

PROGRAM

October 7, 2019 - January 7, 2020



The videos in this program centre around the act of singing: smash hits, true-false classics, original compositions. They refer to the complex relationship between video art and the ‘music video,’ this doppelgänger that imposed itself on the 1980s with the appearance of MTV (1981), MuchMusic (1984), and MusiquePlus (1986), and that would define an entire generation’s relationship to music. They brought glory to some and drove others to despair.

► Watch these videos for free on Vithèque :

  • Jean Décarie (Neam Cathod), I Am Monty Cantsin, 1989
  • Antonin De Bemels, Mouthface, 2007
  • Pascal Lièvre et Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay, Patriotic, 2005
  • Dominique Vézina, Que Sera Sera, 1998
  • Sylvie Laliberté, J’ai tout compris, 2001
  • Nathalie Bujold, O.K. Gerard, 2009
  • François Girard, Fog Area, 1985
  • Pascal Lièvre, L’éternel retour, 2012
  • Dennis Day, An Illustrated History of Western Music, 1997

For Nam June Paik, the direct connection and competition between video art and the music video is clear. In 1988 he said,

‘MTV’s videoclips have already shown that there is great intimacy between sound and image. People are used to these electronic collages. If you compare them to the underground films of the ’60s, you will find lots of common traits, such as abrupt cuts and unusual angles, among other characteristics. MTV is not the only approach to the issue of sound-and-image, but it is an interesting solution, which has contributed a lot to the development of a “visual music”, and to video art.’ (1)

He went on, in 1995, to say,

‘I think MTV is great. The first two or three years of MTV were very good – it was a big cultural phenomenon. And we video-artists must take credit for that, because two key persons in MTV were from our lab. You know, their vice-president in technology was practically my engineer. We had what was called the Television Laboratory. And two key persons – the first program director and the first vice president in technology – came from our organization.’ (2)

Artists such as Jean Décarie or François Girard play with many music video codes: green screens, saturated colors, and rapid editing, for example. To our modern eyes, these videos seem deliciously dated and immediately evoke the 1980s. I Am Monty Cantsin, with its riot of almost aggressive effects, is a punk-revolutionary hymn by/for Monty Cantsin, alias Istvan Kantor. The video is built around a persona. Girard uses another strategy common to music video: a vague storyline that corresponds to the world of Michel Lemieux’s song, Fog Area. In a stylized airplane, our hero arrives in an industrial zone peopled with identical figures. Choreographed dancing ensues, the dancers facing us in ranks behind the singer.

Numerous visual artists have of course integrated music into their practice. This is true in Kantor’s case, as he regularly appears on stage, and is also true of Sylvie Laliberté, who launched her debut album in 2000, Dites-le avec des mots, following it up with Ça s’appelle la vie, and C’est toi mon lieu préféré sur terre. Laliberté uses the same true-false naivety in her music as in her videos or books, pointing out everyday truths and clichés in bizarre fashion. Take, for example,  J’ai tout compris and its light, (literal) bonbon aesthetic that mocks the romantic revelation: ‘Je sais que la vitesse ne va pas si vite, et que les horizons sont à la maison’ (‘I know speed doesn’t go that fast and horizons are at home’).

Others take the opposite aesthetic approach, such as Nathalie Bujold, whose ‘small series of anti-MTV music videos’ (2008), comprise four videos in which incongruous motifs (insect, tulip, potatoes) create a simple and resolutely anti-spectacular counterpoint to pop songs (3). Here the music video is reduced to its simplest expression: a song and a series of images. In O.K. Gerard, which plays with rock star clichés, a guitarist is subjected to simple and repeated video effects against a white background. Someone who would usually be seen behind the singer is, in this case, the video’s primary and sole subject. The editing creates the music rather than supporting it. The performance always seems on the point of just beginning.

Some artists choose diversion. Pascal Lièvre uses songs as the primary material of a large part of his video work; he embraces, in a political and satirical way, the music video’s ‘mannerisms’: stylishness, exuberance, catchiness. The incongruous combination of the aesthetic, the pop melodies, and political or philosophical texts has a strong impact. L’éternel retour puts a text by Alain Badiou to music and Patriotic uses a speech by… George W. Bush.

An Illustrated History of Western Music breaks with the conventions of one song, one music video. Like the work of Lièvre, it is a wonderful hijacking of popular music in a voluntarily kitsch and queer world. The storylines and tunes keep coming as in a complex playlist. It is music video meets musical comedy, another great visual vehicle for popular music. Or vice versa.

While the cultural relevance of the music video has faded since the turn of the 21st century, at least in traditional media, video art is going strong. And it maintains a visceral connection to music and sound creation, to our great pleasure.

Notes:

1) Interview with Eduardo Kac in 1988 republished in: DIVA — Digital & Video Art Fair (A Tribute to Nam June Paik) (Cologne, 2005), 8-9.
2) Nicholas Zurbrugg. ‘Nam June Paik: An Interview’, Visible Language 29:2 (1995): 122- 137.
3) These titles are unfortunately not shown here for copyright reasons.

 

Image: Antonin De Bemels, Mouthface, 2007

 

© Charlotte Clermont, Plants Are Like People, 2018

Technical Support Program

Call for submissions

Deadline : March 1st, 2022



CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Deadline : March 1st, 2021

* New: 4 calls for submissions per year

Program description

The Technical Support Program is intended to support artists interested in experimentation and in pushing the boundaries of the moving image in all its forms.
This support can be used in the production phase of the project or in the post-production phase.

A total of 4 calls for submissions per year will be made, for which the following are the deadlines;

  • March 1st (for projects that will start between April and June)
  • June 1st (for projects that will start between July and September)
  • September 1st (for projects that will start between October and December)
  • December 1st (for projects that will start between January and March)

Please note that 2 projects per call for submissions will be selected.

Artists selected under this program have free access to:

  • Our editing suites, sound booth and digitizing equipment for a maximum of two weeks. These two weeks can be contiguous or spread over 3 months.
  • Free access to available equipment belonging to Vidéographe.
  • Two meetings with Vidéographe’s team to discuss the project and its circulation potential: one meeting at the start of the project in order to specify the needs and a second meeting at the end of the project.
  • The possibility of organizing a private screening at Vidéographe.

It is not necessary to be a member of Vidéographe to apply; however, should your proposal be accepted, we will ask that you become a member. Once you have signed the agreement, you will have three months to take advantage of the benefits that this program has to offer. Regular membership fees are $50 + tx per year and student membership fees are $25 + tx per year.

We are looking to support independent experimental or documentary works that stand apart for their currency and endeavour to renew the artistic language. We will accept proposals for single-channel video, installation, Web-based work, and all other forms of moving image. We consider all genres—video art, experimental work, fiction, documentary or essay form, animation, dance video, and videoclip. Please note that all works must be independent and non-commercial. Projects of a conventional nature, such as classic short narrative film or television documentary will not be considered.

Once your project is finished, you may submit it for active distribution by Vidéographe. Please note however that acceptance into the Technical Support Program does not guarantee that your work will be distributed.

Required

  • Candidates must possess full editorial and creative control of the project.
  • Projects must be independent and non-commercial.
  • Projects that have received support through this program may not be re-submitted.
  • Student projects are not admissible.
  • We encourage traditionally under-represented artists to submit a project. Vidéographe is driven by the conviction that multiple points of views are necessary to enrich society and the discipline we work in.

Selection process

Works will be chosen by a selection committee made up of Vidéographe staff and members.

Projects that are retained will be subject to a contractual agreement between the artist and Vidéographe. Schedules, revised budgets, and requirements regarding equipment, rooms, and technical support will be planned and clearly laid out, as will the terms and conditions relative to each party.

Application file:

  • Contact information and website if applicable
  • Project description (500 words)
  • Schedule; (Overall project timeline and detailed timeline for support for creation).
  • Technical needs; (Please consult our website for more details on our editing suites and equipment).
  • Resume.
  • Supporting documentation (current or past projects);
  • Maximum 10 minutes of video footage. Please send a link to your video(s). Do not forget to include the password if applicable; and/or maximum 15 images (max: 1024 px wide, 72 dpi); sketches, plans, and mock-ups may also be submitted in PDF format.

Submission of your file

Applications will be accepted by email only. An acknowledgment of receipt will be sent. Please write TECHNICAL SUPPORT PROGRAM in the subject heading of your email and send your file to info@videographe.org. Please send your file as a SINGLE PDF document (including links to videos). Files found in the text section of the email will not be taken into account.

Please allow three weeks for a response. Vidéographe chooses eight projects per year.