Bibittes à patates et lépidoptères

Oscillating between the real and the unreal, this video initiates a transgression of the body towards an "in-between" figure whose paradigmatic inhabitant is animalistic, vegetal and monstrous in nature. Bringing to life and magnifying forms, movements, colors, music and textures using the dancing body, contorted, extended and attached to large puppet sculptures, this work emanates from a masterful and jubilant integration of an organic density with analog creative processes and digital technologies.

How do insects dance? Drawing inspiration from movements in the tiny insect world, Catherine Boisvenue Ménard undergoes her own metamorphosis, creating costumes controlled like puppets, which become extensions of her body. Discussing her works, the artist says that she is trying to reveal “the hidden power of the body.” Donning her sculpture-garments, the performer becomes an indescribable “bug” with a unique body language, which she captures on her video camera. The settings for the artist’s disguises are distorted reproductions of the forms and colours of the costumes, and when she changes her disguise, the decor transforms to express her symbiosis with her environment.

Text by: Julien St-Georges Tremblay