Jonathan Plante David Dufresne-Denis Nathalie LeBlanc Marie-Andrée Pellerin Jenn Pocobene The GEORGES-LAOUN-OPTICIEN-OBORO 2012 Super Short Film Prize
© A. Tremblay, 2010
The GEORGES-LAOUN-OPTICIEN-OBORO 2012 Super Short Film Prize from Oboro Goboro on Vimeo.
The Winner
Jonathan Plante
Passing Time [3m], 2012
Every image of this monochromatic animation was created in a white space with transparent adhesive tape. The script is improvised, stemming out of the experience of the moment. Shifting between performance, collage, drawing, sculpture and video, this allegorical work identifies the void through gesture and light. Thus, Passing Time makes visible the gap that simultaneously connects and separates us from the real.
The Finalists
David Dufresne-Denis
Cactus Sandrine [2m 59s], 2012
A rumour heard in several cities claims that if an overpopulation of tramps or itinerant characters occurs, the city offers them, for all sort of strange reasons, a one-way ticket to another city. Thus, a special program in Brussels enables Sandrine, a street scientist, to go save the world from harmful broadcasts, starting with Liege…
Nathalie LeBlanc
Deserted Desert [2m 30s], 2012
Deserted Desert is a short contemplative video, with no soundtrack, which questions the mobility of video and the fixity of photography. A slide appears on a black background, its white frame acting as a second frame in the video. In the centre, the transparent film displays a desert scene, animated by silhouettes projected onto it. The superposition of images forms a trace needing to be reconstructed, as the video’s elements would not be connected, if it wasn’t for their visual appearance.
Marie-Andrée Pellerin
The Red Dragon [2m 20s], 2012
An advertising screen projects a bright animation into an urban space. The light’s presence enhances the mysterious aspect of the place. Contemplative in nature, the sequence of images and the brief appearance of characters suggest a few narrative tracks. Gradually, the places explored dematerialize and extricate themselves from their original context. Mis en abîme (placed into the abyss) they occur in a new space: a screen within a screen.
Jenn Pocobene
Swing [1m 3s], 2012
Balloons roll. Streamers colour the ground. Remnants from a party. Where are we? A woman. A man. For them, the dance continues. Bodies meet once more. One guides, the other learns. Who is showing who? A hat passes from head to head, the feminine and the masculine forming a harmonious duality. Domination gives way to mutual exchange and equilibrium.
The Price
Making good use of their shared neighbourhood and common patronage of the arts, Georges Laoun Opticien and OBORO have come together to create this prize. Four finalists will receive $100 in cash, and the winner will be offered a prize of $500 in cash and $1500 of access to OBORO’s New Media Lab equipment and studios.
The five finalists’ videos will be screened in the storefront of Georges Laoun Opticien located at 4012 Saint-Denis Street in Montreal through October 31, in the purpose of bringing new media art into the community of the Plateau Mont-Royal.
The winner will be announced at the launch cocktail on October 25 at 6:30 pm.
Georges Laoun Opticien was awarded the 2010 prix Art-Affaires by the Montreal Arts Council for the involvement in this project. The prize will return next year: have a look on the call for proposals!
© A. Tremblay, 2010
Jonathan Plante was born in 1976. He lives and works in Montreal. Through multidisciplinary installations he investigates the question of presence by exploring the different states of the image. His work is part of private and public collections, including that of the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal.
Born in Trois-Rivières, David Dufresne-Denis studied science, theatre and scriptwriting before becoming interested in journalism and documentary film. The Kino movement enabled him to expand his knowledge of the field and travel to Europe where he deepened his cultural knowledge. After directing a documentary series for Urbania.ca (Profile Series), he returned to Belgium to direct a feature length intimist documentary about Brussels.
Born in Drummondville, Nathalie LeBlanc lives and works in Baie-Saint-Paul. Having earned a Bachelor of Visual and Media Arts degree from Université Laval, she participated in the group show En Prolongation in 2011, where she first presented her slide-based work. Since then, she has been exploring the luminosity and transparency of this photographic medium in order to make this outmoded process current through redirection, imitation and video integration.
Marie-Andrée Pellerin is a visual artist from Montreal, trained in art and architecture. Since 2010, her practice has involved much movement and research in varied contexts (Bucharest, Marseilles, Brussels, Cieplice, etc.), from which her projects have stemmed. Her artistic work, always influenced by the initial training in architecture, takes the form of video, installation and drawing.
Originally from the south of France, where she first worked in fashion and photography, Jenn Pocobene studied at the arts and crafts and millinery school in Lyon, France. In the summer or 2007, she moved to Montreal and became in charge of the design department of Harricana by Mariouche, where she worked for five years. Currently an independent fashion designer, she wishes to continue exploring her creative talent through video.
