Friday 4th and Saturday 5th of April 2025
9 pm > 1 am – Loop screening
Total duration: approx. 30 min
Free
> Facebook event
La Voix du Nord
Grand’Place
59000 Lille
> Download the map of the tour
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Monument video mapping – 5 creations
• Stéphania de La Chauvinière, Laetitia Le Gall, Clémentine Thiriot – UNDA (France) ; Music: Marek Hunhap (France) – Residency
• Krzysztof Wodiczko (Poland, USA) – Residency
• Prapavee Vaidyanond (Thailand) ; Music: Marek Hunhap (France) – Residency
• Pablo Gracias and the Visual Sciences and Cultures Research Federation (France) ; Music: Géraldine Kwik (France) – Production
• Patrick Grandi (France) ; Aerial dance: Compagnie LaterrateraL (Belgium) ; Music: Géraldine Kwik (France) – Residency
5 creations to see on the facade of La Voix du Nord:
. 2 works echoing the building’s journalistic function: one inspired by the evolution of the media made by members of the UNDA collective ; and an abstract visual exploration of the theme of censorship, by Thai artist Prapavee Vaidyanond.
. A Franco-Belgian mapping and aerial dance performance by mapping artist Patrick Grandi and the Compagnie LaterrateraL, blending the verticality of the monument with bodies in motion.
. A mapping combining motion design and interactivity to bring Baroque dance up to date, a collaboration between mapping artist Pablo Gracias and researchers from the Visual Sciences and Cultures Research Federation.
. A documentary mapping creation by Krzysztof Wodiczko (Poland, USA), one of the world’s great mapping pioneers.
Video mapping made as part of creation residencies, a Franco-Belgian creation residency as part of the Interreg France – Wallonia – Vlaanderen VideoMap project, and a production with the Visual Sciences and Cultures Research Federation as part of the Get-in-Past project, Baroque dance and music in the digital age.
Krzysztof Wodiczko’s creation is supported by the Polish Institute and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, as part of the cultural programme of the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2025.
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► Impressions
At the heart of Lille’s Grand’Place stands the imposing facade of La Voix du Nord building. Its unique architecture makes it a symbol of strength and resistance. This historic site is home to a newspaper that, since its origins, has been committed to providing free information and defending press freedom. This facade becomes the setting for a visual exploration tracing the evolution of the media. Through projection, the printed letters come to life and tell the story: from the beginnings of the press to the digital age. Typography, the central character, guides the viewer through this journey, where information crosses, intertwines and sometimes collides. This constant flow of information raises a number of questions: to what extent does the overabundance of information serve or jeopardise the freedom to inform?
Visually, the video mapping immerses the viewer in a whirlwind of words, images and colours. This symbolic chaos reflects the complexity of contemporary media, between truth and misinformation.
Direction and animation: Stéphania de La Chauvinière, Laetitia Le Gall, Clémentine Thiriot – UNDA
Original music: Marek Hunhap
► Les Yeux du Nord
The non-homeless city dwellers see the homeless persons superficially, with peripheral vision, through the corner of their eye, as nameless speechless shadowy silent figures in the city landscape. Majority of city residents fear direct contact with the homeless minority because they are afraid to acknowledge a frightening possibility of ending up themselves in the homeless situation.
The homeless persons however cannot afford such distance, detachment, and passive perception. Out of the existential and survival necessity they must watch, observe – with sharp focus and critical clarity – not only their own condition, but also the ignorant, apathetic, repressive, and ambivalent condition of “home-full” city dwellers and of the larger, more fortunate world around them.
In this situation and under such conditions the homeless persons – aware or unaware – seem to function as a conscious and knowledgeable “eye” of the city.
With such experience, knowledge and perceptive eye, and when received an access to media, many homeless persons wish to share and speak publicly of what they see in an articulate voice.
In this video mapping, they appropriate the heights and architectural splendor of the Voix du Nord building and seemingly “wear” its facade as a monumental mask; because it is easier to publicly speak the truth of one’s harsh lived experience when wearing a mask in which one appears part private person and part public building.
Let’s hear that what the homeless persons see, how they see the city and how, in their own eyes, they are seen and unseen.
Direction: Krzysztof Wodiczko, assisted with Gilles Paté
With testimonies from: Mado, Sébastien, Stella, Steven
Shooting: Gilles Paté
Sound recording: Gauthier Cauvin
Editing: Gilles Paté
Media stabilisation: Patrick Grandi
► The Blossom of Resistance
The suppression of the flourishing of media freedom is like trying to overshadow the growth of hope. The more efforts are made to stifle it, the stronger the resistance becomes. This creation illustrates the often turbulent relationship between censorship and the freedom of the press. Through dynamic abstract visuals and evocative storytelling, it illustrates the struggle for truth against suppression, the impact of silenced voices, and the resilience of journalists seeking to inform and empower.
Symbolising free expression, this journey captures the ongoing battle for transparency, truth, and the right to speak freely, urging viewers to reflect on the significance of “freedom of the press”.
Direction and animation: Prapavee Vaidyanond
Original music: Marek Hunhap
► L’Isle des Foux
L’Isle des Foux is an 18th-century contredanse, danced by 8 people, whose steps have resounded as much in the glitter of salons as on the cobblestones of popular balls, thanks to the distribution of its choreographic score. This audiovisual creation reinvents this score, its memory and outlines its future, like a dance suspended between eras.
As the images unfold, the swirls of dresses whirl in a breath of light, silhouettes fade and are reborn, carried by a capricious gravity. Bodies float, gestures stretch, creating a choreography in which time becomes blurred. Between a reinvented past and dreamlike visions, L’Isle des Foux invites you on a sensitive journey, where dance becomes a weightless dream.
As for the Maître à Danser, he keeps a watchful eye on the dance, in the form of an interactive installation in which 8 dancers in turn can try their hand at re-enacting the gestures of the past, feeling under their feet the cadences of another century. The movements are repeated, transformed and pass through time – and beneath their feet, the echoes of ancient dances are reborn.
Direction: Pablo Gracias
With the collaboration of: Guillaume Jablonka – Compagnie Divertimenty / Ludivine Panzani – IRHiS Laboratory / Thomas Yvrard – Lille Conservatoire / Pierre-Henry Bas and Ali Boulgsoa – FR SCV
Animation and interactivity: Nicolas Camarty, Pablo Gracias
Music and sound design: Géraldine Kwik ; Music inspired by L’Isle des Foux, contredanse aria by M. Landrin (1727-1793)
► Cage
Cage presents the march towards rupture in an abstract way. Confinement is omnipresent. Ruin follows what seems to be a golden age. Reaction is always present, pushing in from all sides in the form of particles that are sometimes scattered, sometimes coordinated.
Direction and animation: Patrick Grandi
Original music: Géraldine Kwik
Performance – Vertical dance: Viola Di Lauro, Judith Léonardon, Noé Mermin, Sara Molon, Esteban Vin – Compagnie LaterrateraL
Video mapping tour organised by Rencontres Audiovisuelles.
With the support of the Hauts-de-France Region, DRAC Hauts-de-France, Métropole Européenne de Lille, the City of Lille and Crédit Mutuel Nord Europe.
The works by UNDA and Prapavee Vaidyanond are made during a creation residency organised by Rencontres Audiovisuelles as part of the Video Mapping European Center.
With the support of the European Union (Europe is committed to the Hauts-de-France Region through the European Regional Development Fund), the Hauts-de-France Region, the Communauté d’Agglomération de La Porte du Hainaut and Arenberg Creative Mine.
The work by Patrick Grandi and the Compagnie LaterrateraL is made during a creation residency organised by the Rencontres Audiovisuelles as part of the Video Mapping European Center and the VideoMap project.
With the support of the European Union, Interreg France – Wallonia – Vlaanderen programme.
The work by Pablo Gracias is a production made with the Visual Sciences and Cultures Research Federation as part of the Get-in-Past project, Baroque dance and music in the digital age.
With the support of the European Union (Europe is committed to the Hauts-de-France Region through the European Regional Development Fund), in collaboration with the Divertimenty company, the CNRS and the University of Lille.
The work by Krzysztof Wodiczko is made during a creation residency organised by Rencontres Audiovisuelles as part of the Video Mapping European Center.
With the support of the European Union (Europe is committed to the Hauts-de-France Region through the European Regional Development Fund), the Polish Institute and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, as part of the cultural programme of the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2025, and White Rabbit Pictures.
With the support of La Voix du Nord.
Creations supported by the Crédit Mutuel Nord Europe.
