DailyDOOH

Gail Chiasson, North American Editor

Each winter, Montreal’s Quartier des Spectacles, the city’s premiere entertainment district, presents a colourful setting of light – sometimes interactive –sculpture-like pieces and video projections with sound on surrounding buildings, in total referred to Luminothérapie.

Aim of the ‘show’ is to brighten the lives of Montrealers and visitors in an area where about 80 cultural venues are located and some 40 events and festivals are held annually.

The colourful pieces, as well as the video projections, are chosen through a Luminothérapie competition. Quebec’s largest competition for temporary works. Last year’s competition received a total of 55 proposals for both sections – proof of its attractiveness to creators.

The call has now gone out for proposals for the- 2015-16 edition of Luminothérapie, Quebec’s largest competition for temporary works. The purpose of the multidisciplinary competition is to present a unique winter experience in the Quartier des Spectacles and to stimulate creativity in the design of works for public spaces.

The free competition is Canada-wide and open to all teams whose lead designer is based in Canada.

This year, a single call for proposals has been issued for both the creation of a primary participatory work for the Place des Festivals and architectural video projections for nine building façades in the Quartier. In previous years, the competition was split into two sections, one for the Place des Festivals and one for the video projections. The merger of the two components is intended to lead to a unified concept for the Quartier.

Creators from all backgrounds are invited to propose an original project for presentation in the Quartier des Spectacles for the 6th edition of Luminothérapie, which will run from December 10, 2015 to January 31, 2016. The registration deadline is May 1, 2015.

Proposed works must be inspired by winter and be site-specific. They must focus on light and sound, give visitors a daytime and nighttime experience, be meaningful and encourage people of all ages to participate.

The video projections for the nine building façades in the Quartier must be accompanied by an original soundtrack and complement the primary work in the Place des Festivals by enhancing its narrative themes.

The video projections will be shown at the Quartier’s permanent projection sites for digital art: the Grande Bibliothèque (Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec); the UQAM bell tower; the Centre de design at UQAM; Cégep du Vieux Montréal; Théâtre Maisonneuve; UQAM’s President Kennedy building; Hôtel Zéro1 on Place de la Paix; the wall outside Saint-Laurent metro station; and a new projection site, Place Dupuis, adjacent to Place Émilie-Gamelin.

Organized in collaboration with the Ville de Montréal’s Bureau du design, the competition has two phases: in the first, proposals will be anonymous for initial review in order to encourage impartiality and to level the playing field for up-and-coming talent; in the second phase, the finalists will give a presentation to the jury.

To promote the emergence of new cultural and artistic practices, the organizers are strongly encouraging a formation of multidisciplinary teams. The jury will favour projects that combine different perspectives by bringing together design and performing, visual or media arts.

The total production budget is $300,000.

Participants must register by May 1 at noon Montreal time (EDT) in order to obtain the documents they will require to prepare their proposals. The registration form, rules and evaluation criteria for the competition can be found here.

The 2014 competition gave the public an installation in the Place des Festivals called Prismatica by RAW Design (Toronto) – the first winner from outside Quebec – and the Fascinoscope video projections by Lüz Studio, Montreal.

Montreal is part of UNESCO’s international Creative Cities Network in the Cities of Design category. The Network includes 69 cities in 32 countries. It helps creators in member cities share their experiences, while promoting the international exchange of best practices and knowledge. The Ville de Montréal’s Bureau du design works with the Quartier des Spectacles Partnership on preparing and running this annual competition.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 25th, 2015 at 15:00 @666 and is filed under DailyDOOH Update. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.