SIGHT & SOUND 2012

For its fourth edition, Sight & Sound Festival returns in full force with original and experimental programming, as unique as always within Montreal’s digital art scene. Sight & Sound proposes an overall aesthetic of experience-based, intimate and unconventional work, via a unique line-up of sitespecific performances and installations.
This year, the festival takes place from May 23rd to the 27th, 2012, and explores the theme of “Systems of Symmetry.” A dozen installations and AV performances, by local and international artists, will be presented, many of which for the first time ever, alongside a series of conferences and workshops, all at Eastern Bloc, production and exhibition centre for New Media art.

[text=right]“I am exceptionally proud of this year's programming for Sight & Sound.
We've put together our most daring program of local and international artists yet. As always, the festival embodies the ethos of Eastern Bloc, a space for experimentation, a springboard for new and innovative ideas, and a place where cutting edge art is presented in a dynamic, engaging, intimate, sensual way. Our team, now more than ever, is dedicated to pushing the boundaries of New Media art, alongside our artists, members and collaborators.”
Eliane Ellbogen, Artistic Director[/text]

New work premiering at Sight & Sound
Following his first Montreal performance in 2010 at the 2nd edition of Sight & Sound and in 2011 at Elektra with his performance Nobody, French artist Bruno Ribeiro, aka Nohista, active member of V-Atak, returns to Eastern Bloc with the world premiere of his latest performance work Layers, produced with the help of PRIM.

Local favourite of the Quebec art scene, sound and installation artist Thomas Bégin has prepared, specially for the festival, two new projects exploring audio creation through material manipulation and the exploitation of a spatial environment.

First time in Montreal
After a stint at the Venice Biennale and the Giant Robot Scion Space in Los Angeles, Zach Gage, enfant terrible of the New York art scene and creator of Halcyon, Bit Pilot, Unify and SynthPond, all having gone viral, comes to Montreal for the first time ever. Zach will present several works, which question the place of the spectator in the exhibition space as well as our relationship to technology and its current uses.

Artkillart Label featured at Sight & Sound
Founded in 2007, the Franco-German label Artkillart, based in Paris and Berlin, will be featured during this edition of the festival. Artkillart promotes audio and AV art, specifically in relation to the physical limitations of their material supports – the CD, DVD, USB key, vinyl record – in the context of digital creation. The label invites artists to conceive and create works with this problematic in mind. Artkillart organises the Mal au Pixel festival in Paris, member of the Pixelache network comprising seven international electronic arts festivals. To mark the label’s noteworthy contribution to the international digital art community, several of the label’s artists will perform at various occasions during the festival, and a conference on the label’s exploration of asymmetrical production systems will be given.

Since 2007, Eastern Bloc has been at the forefront of New Media and interdisciplinary arts promotion and dissemination in Quebec. The vision at Eastern Bloc is to exploreand push the creative boundaries in digital and electronic art, audio/video installation, multimedia performance and other emerging practices.

The complete festival programming will be revealed to the public on 25th of April.

Until then, follow the festival’s latest news at www.easternbloc.ca