The Peddler Closet

:: The project of the travelling closet was carried out in spring 2001 during a residency in Est-nord-est center. It is an interactive project inviting the passers by to intervene physically in a surrealist situation metaphor of their physical relation to their environment. The closet walks along on casters transporting mechanical cloths/prostheses. It is composed of familiar elements but incongruous in this situation and of an electronic control. When it stops I take out a pair of latex and metal wings as well as lead soles, and I invite the passers by to try on these accessories that will enable them to control the mechanism of the landscape inside the box. The bottom of the closet is opened at middle height letting the light through an aqueous visual effect created by the translucent acetate superposition. They pass as a water landscape following the rhythm of the beat of the wings.

:: The first exit of the closet toke place at Saint Jean Port Joli (Quebec) at the edge of the river St Laurent it was a complete success. The Closet attracted the passers by thanks to its surrealist and ludic aspect, this intervention brought in a small community a moment of artistic exchanges around the significant presence of the movement of water for the inhabitants. The Closet was also presented at Theatre 347 in Paris within the framework of the Via+ festival but by its travelling aspect It is more to be presented in street festival than in a theatre.

:: Since my training in visual arts at Concordia University, my artistic practice combines the sculpture and the interactive mechanisms. Direct intervention is an axis that I already approached in previous projects such as SkulpturZirkus, and the Closet project confirmed that it is a presentation mode adapted to my interactive objects. It replaces them in direct bond with the community.

 F un c ti o n s is an environment of interactive sculptures, articulated and sensual mechanical prostheses. The pieces presented here have by their texture a direct bond with the body from which they are often inspired in their forms as mechanics gives them life. They let us see our inner body from an external point of view. The sculptures resemble archaic moving beings they question the viewer at the same time attracted and worried by what is presented to him. In the interactive process he is confronted with the sculptures, using a physical interface that implies the moving of the totality of his body. As he attempts to control the sculpture, their mutual discovery brings to a new perception of the viewer own physical reality and his position in space as a biological entity. He becomes aware of the reality of his own body towards the chaotic body of the machine who imitates him or is it the opposite Functions was presented in February 2003 at the art centre Action Art Actuel at St Jean on Richelieu (Quebec).