Ryoji Ikeda: C4I
May 6–June 15, 2014
Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal
185, rue Sainte-Catherine Ouest
Montréal (Québec) H2X 3X5
As part of the second edition of Montréal’s International Digital Arts Biennial (BIAN), the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MAC) is pleased to present the film version of C4I, a majestic work by Japanese artist, composer and performer Ryoji Ikeda, one of the leading names in minimalist electronic music. C4I will be screened in Beverley Webster Rolph Hall at the MAC from May 6 to June 15.
Ikeda, described by the Musée’s Director and Chief Curator John Zeppetelli as “the great poet of our current age of digital exploration,” pursues a practice that explores the rationality, simplicity and intricacy of ultrasounds, frequencies and the essential characteristics of sound. A master of minimalist sound, he takes the manipulation of sonic data to the limits of perception. In Ikeda’s work, the sublime blends with infinity, and the nexus of sensations triggered by his visual and sonic compositions evokes a vast, intangible and strikingly elegant world.
Both a concert and a film, C4I uses data as material and theme, highlighting the ways in which such information shapes our understanding of the world. Video images of landscapes are gradually abstracted into a language of data, while facts, figures and diagrams are used in a montage of dazzling graphic force. Text excerpts elegantly punctuate the onscreen projections. Blurring the lines between nature, science and philosophy, the work subtly suggests a convergence of the real and the virtual. The sound track synchronizes perfectly with the graphical and video images to create a piece of undeniable power and beauty. C4I, with its meticulous composition and technical sophistication, reveals sublime views of reality.
Organization
This presentation was organized by Louise Simard, Head of Multimedia at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal.
A North American premiere
superposition by Ryoji Ikeda presented by the MAC
To extend this experience, the Musée d’art contemporain is presenting, in its North American premiere, Ikeda’s superposition at Théâtre Maisonneuve, Place des Arts, next October 11. The superposition project is about the way we understand the reality of nature on an atomic scale and is inspired by the mathematical notions of quantum mechanics. Performers will appear in his piece for the first time, acting as operator/conductor/observer/examiners. All the components on stage will be in a state of superposition: sound, visuals, physical phenomena, mathematical concepts, human behaviour and randomness will be constantly orchestrated and de-orchestrated simultaneously in a single performance piece. Given its world premiere in November 2012 at the Centre Pompidou, superposition was commissioned by the Festival d’Automne à Paris, for its music section.
Biography
Ryoji Ikeda was born in 1966 in Gifu, Japan, and now lives and works in Paris. A member of the multidisciplinary artists’ collective Dumb Type, he first attracted attention with his recordings, concerts and installations on the electronica scene in the mid-1990s. In 2001, his work matrix earned him the Golden Nica at the Ars Electronica festival in Linz, Austria, and he was short-listed for the World Technology Award in 2003 and 2010. Ikeda’s first major solo exhibition was held in 2009 at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo. In 2011, Park Avenue Armory commissioned the work Test Pattern. In 2012, the DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art, at the instigation of its curator at the time, John Zeppetelli, presented Ikeda’s first solo exhibition in North America. Ryoji Ikeda is the recent winner of the Prix Ars Electronica 2014 Collide@CERN.
Source and information
Wanda Palma, MACM
Head of Public Relations
wanda.palma [at] macm.org
T +514 847 6232
