After presenting the installation twice in Mexico last year (Oaxaca, Mexico city), we had the chance to go back to the American continent later in the year, this time invited by 2 Brazilian organizations.

Eletronika Festival – Belo Horizonte November 30, 2013

It is right at the heart of the Igreia Sao Francisco de Assis, designed by the Iconic Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, that the audience was invited to experience a seated and intimate version of our piece.

It was obviously quite exciting to know that Onion Skin was the first ever installation exhibited in the church. And also quite intimidating to be surrounded by Candido Portinari’s controversial paintings.

Here is a selection of photos:

Multiplicidade festival – Rio de Janeiro -December 7+8, 2013

Right at the bottom of the Corcovado mountain, surrounded by the largest urban forest in the world, can be found the Parque Lage School of Visual Arts. It was outdoors, among thick humid vegetation and mico monkeys, that Onion Skin was set, for 2 nights, and for the first time with a 5.1 surround sound composition.

Here are a few pictures of the event:

Onion Skin will be presented at EXIT FESTIVAL
March 27 to April 13, 2014
France / Créteil

The piece I presented is a light and sound sculpture whose elements are suspended in mid-airspace, and fragmented in a space. This dynamic layout offers different points of view and perspective according to the position of the spectator.
The structure was in the center of the room, and filled a 13 m2 surface and a 3m height.

“White roads in the red matrix” is in continuation of my artistic commitment over the past few years, but this time with a more “structural” approach, as opposed to my work based on still or moving images, but again with the same focus of deconstruction. A selection of my deconstruction series can be found on my blog WYSI*not*YYG, while series based around the theme of time are visible on Deconstruction Time, Again.

While doing some research around the deconstruction theme, I had to create fragments, which would always be rectangles, the main geometrical shape I’ve been obsessed with for years, the core material of the work. But this time I wanted to have an even more radical approach.

The outcome of this research is a spread of fragments in space, a floating matrix  animated in time by sound and light.

The installation is made of 14 elements of red semi-translucent Plexiglas and six  aluminium structure with embedded LEDs.

These elements can be lit up independently, and synchronized with a sound design  that brings the temporal dimension of the work. Thomas Vaquié worked on the sound design, and created two main sound ‘colors’ to reflect the each of the two materials’ singularity. The sound is then made of 44 different sounds, and the challenge was to create melodic and harmonious.combinations from these elements.

Part of the structure was projection mapped, and projectors were used to contrasts with the sharp lighting of LEDs, and the visuals were developped with VVVV. The software will allow future development of an interactive version of the piece.

Olivier Ratsi : design / Thomas Vaquié : sound design / Anthony Gouvrillon : software development / Julien Guinard : LED development

Thank you to Elektra team, Gilles Alvarez, Julien Taib, Cedric Huchet, Nicolas Rosette – Support by Arcadi, Théâtre de l’Agora and Stereolux.