Esther Bourdages aka EstherB.: October 2020

Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Participation à l'exposition de groupe Audiosphere au Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid, Espagne, jusqu'au 15 février 2021. Commissaire : Francisco Lopez.

By way of a selection of hundreds of sound works, Audiosphere. Sound Experimentation 1980-2020 looks to cover an historical and cultural void in terms of the recognition, exhibition and analysis of a key part of the recent changes that have taken place in the artistic conception of sound creation.

Conceived from a social perspective, and with the aim of revealing and providing context to reflect upon and discuss the techno-cultural changes that have occurred since the 1980s, the exhibition will present the work of a broad number of experimental sound artists, hailing from all over the world, the majority unknown to the contemporary art spectator.

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One of my music piece is include in the group exhibition Audiosphere at Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain, extended until February 15, 2021. Curator: Francisco Lopez.

Audiosphere exhibition, download for free the PDF catalogue,

English version: https://www.museoreinasofia.es/en/publicaciones/audiosphere

Wednesday, October 7, 2020

Nouvellement publié!

«Virginie Laganière et Jean-Maxime Dufresne – Sous l’angle de l’atmosphère », Vie des Arts, Montréal, no 261, automne 2020.

La collaboration que j’entretiens avec le duo d’artistes Virginie Laganière et Jean-Maxime Dufresne remonte à Fugue urbaine, une exposition de groupe initiée par la Fonderie Darling dont j’ai assuré le commissariat en 2010. Cet événement m’a permis de me familiariser avec leur démarche artistique et de découvrir que nous partageons des affinités en matière d’art sonore, et pour les thèmes qui valorisent les études culturelles. Le duo montréalais poursuit une pratique entrelaçant les arts visuels et médiatiques tout en s’alimentant d’autres disciplines, telles que l’anthropologie, l’architecture et les études urbaines. Quoiqu’ils aient chacun une pratique individuelle, en tandem ils s’intéressent aux territoires urbanisés et leurs réalités sociales, aux transformations de l’environnement construit et naturel, ainsi qu’à différentes formes de spéculation sur le futur. Complexes, leurs expositions témoignent d’une sensibilité particulière pour la psyché humaine et des climats socio-politiques.

Le thème central de ce présent profil d’artistes a émergé à la suite de la dernière exposition monographique A.L.M.A. [Acqua, Luce, Materia, Aria] (Occurrence, 2020) de Jean-Maxime Dufresne, qui élaborait sur les atmosphères de pouvoir à Rome, et de la publication du Journal for Architecture OASE, no 91, qui s’est notamment concentré sur les liens tissés entre l’architecture et l’atmosphère. Pour les arts visuels, ce dernier concept demeure un champ encore peu développé qui ouvre pourtant sur une dimension de nature subjective et intangible de l’œuvre d’art. Ce sont les matériaux méticuleusement choisis par Laganière et Dufresne qui génèrent l’ambiance, et selon leur mise en espace ils transmettent soit des états d’esprit, des sensations ou des pistes de lecture sur le contexte d’une recherche.

Lire la suite : https://viedesarts.com/profils/virginie-laganiere-et-jean-maxime-dufresne-sous-langle-de-latmosphere/

BIO

Esther Bourdages works in the visual arts and technology art fields as a writer, independent curator and scholar. She holds a MA in Art History from Université de Montréal, where she wrote about the Swiss sculptor Jean Tinguely and the relationship between sculpture within an expanded field, as multimedia and sound art. Her curatorial research explores art forms such as site-specific art, installation art and sculpture, often in conjunction with technology (media and digital art). She develops since couple years a research on curating sound art, that she had opportunities to present in some contexts, as Mutek and Eastern Bloc in Montreal.

Working as a long-term collaborator on contemporary art exhibitions with the Darling Foundry / Quartier Éphemère in Montréal has provided many opportunities to develop her work in these areas. Esther Bourdages is particularly interested in developing interdisciplinary projects that relate to contemporary ideas in the fields of architecture, anthropology, urbanism, and cultural studies. Recent work related to this has examined urban environments in relation to the social and historical fabric of cities. An especially important aspect of her curatorial practice is sound, which she endeavours to treat as an independent rather than supplementary medium. She has authored many articles and critical commentaries on contemporary art. In addition to her creative practice, she is also actively involved in artist-run-centres and independent structures - as Agence Topo and Perte de signal. She is currently the Secretary, after to be President (2012-2016), on the Board of Director at Eastern Bloc, a leading Digital Art Exhibition & Production Centre dedicated for emerging artists. She is involved since many years with Quartier Ephémère / Darling Foundry. During 2015, she was the editor in chief of .dpi, a Journal dedicated to digital and feminism culture, produced by the Studio XX in Montreal. She is co-host of CAFE on CKUT radio, FM 90.3 since 2011, where she talks about art and culture.

She works at OPTICA, centre d'art contemporain since 2017.

As a musician, she performs under the name of Esther B - she plays turntable, handles vinyl records, and records soundscapes. She has performed in Canada, the US and France ; additionally, her works have been presented in England, Germany, Palestine, Portugal, Belgium and Danemark. Improvisation allows to her to create raw, non-linear music peppered with altered sonic quotes and abstracted sounds, textures mostly produced by vinyls that have undergone specific alterations (grinding, cutting, etc.). She is a member of the turntable trio Vinyl Interventions with Carrie Gates (Saskatoon) and Marinko Jareb (St. Catherines, Ontario). This outfit has been presenting its eponymous workshop. Since 2002 She has organized A Microphone in a Noize Storm, a concert series dedicated to new music. She also do radio art pieces based on field recordings.

esther.bourdages [at] gmail.com

Esther Bourdages aka EstherB.

Blog Archive

Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Wednesday, October 7, 2020

Nouvellement publié!

«Virginie Laganière et Jean-Maxime Dufresne – Sous l’angle de l’atmosphère », Vie des Arts, Montréal, no 261, automne 2020.

LIENS divers, Other links

Mon mémoire de maîtrise publié en histoire de l'art / My master thesis in art history published