[Video Premiere] Antivj Turn Cacti Into Jutting Stalks Of Light

THE ARK

Visual label Antivj never cease to amaze. Whether they're asking us to enter the void, or challenging the limitations of projection mapping, the group has proved that light can be bent, refracted, and imagined without limits. For their newest installation The Ark, member Romain Tardy teamed up with musician Squeeky Lobster to contribute to a four part site-specific project at the Ethnobotanical Garden of Oaxaca, Mexico--turning the park into an immersive lightscape. As part of Proyecto Oaxaca, The Ark illuminates the water with a series of jutting crystals that give an eerie glow to their placid surroundings.

Attached to the native cacti that dot the shoreline of the Aljibe, Antivj's installation brings the plants to life through vivid projected and programmed light formations--giving the appearance of a supernatural phenomenon. According to Antivj "The Ark gives voice to the garden’s plants, participants in the work, the beating heart of the space and an unpredictable choir." Composed of three shifting patterns, the audio-visual installation is meant to evoke the feeling of "a movie set in space" that visitors can wander and immerse themselves in.

Recently The Creators Project was able to catch up with a few of the members of Antivj to learn more about the inspiration behind the installation:

The Creators Project: Can you tell us a little bit more about the genesis of this project?

Laurent Delforge (Squeaky Lobster): The Ark is a site­specific audiovisual installation, and also the second step of a journey that began with Onion Skin, an installation by Olivier Ratsi and Thomas Vaquié. The Ark was written as a path through Oaxaca’s Garden, and was divided in three different parts. A first trail was leading, and progressively immersing, the walkers into the core of the piece. Shapes of light and whispering sounds were slowly drawing the way to the main scene.

The very setting was responding to the inherent nature of the place. Its architecture drawn by cacti which separate the space into two involuntary chambers of contemplation, allowing visitors to see the installation from different angles. The idea to play with a multi­sided space became a thread in the narrative construction of the piece.

The particularity of the location, and its direct influence on the piece itself, create a deep connection between The Ark and the Ethnobotanical Garden of Oaxaca, acting as a true contextual installation. Working with nature and using plants as a visual canvas gave us the idea to use their presence not only as a projection surface, but also as living beings embodying at some point an individual presence.

Seeing nature as a whole, consisting of multiple living entities organized under their own rules, obviously led the writing of the piece and its different phases. Set as the main characters of the installation, the cacti were at times either taking independent roles or rather weaving together the whole visual mass by interlacing their own strands of light to create a third­part living reality, which naturally took its place in the context.

But The Ark doesn’t actually consist of an attempt to reach a pristine symbiosis between nature and technology. The idea was more to create a peculiar encounter between them, where, when possible, the technical means implemented could be forgotten, to leave space to the spectacle of their confrontation.

Therefore, and perhaps to enhance this face­off, Romain [Tardy] designed an immaculate white parallel piped structure that could be seen from the very last part of the trail. A pure and foreign matter that finally found its place as the conductor of this unpredicted collision.

How does it fit with your larger body of work?

Romain Tardy: If working with video mapping brings a lot of creative possibilities, it also has many constraints. Architecture can be sometimes a pretty tough object to work with, and does not always allow all the visual fantasies you may have in mind.

By considering all these cactus as individuals, each one having his own behavior, I could go further with some graphic and motion design experiments.

What made you choose this location?

Nicolas Boritch: We originally had discussions with the people of Proyecta Oaxaca to create a series of installations spread across the city. The Ethnobotanical Garden of Oaxaca was supposed to be one of those locations, but its unique setting, and the fact that it is an enclosed space, seemed the ideal environment to try and create an experience on a more intimate scale--conceived as a trail, or a dream, and composed of several site specific installations. The area within the corridors of cacti and the Aljibe water reserve pond is the heart of the garden, and felt like an obvious choice with multiple possibilities--especially in terms of how the audience would arrive to that part of the garden, and how they would navigate through it.

How did you choose what music to use?

Romain Tardy: Like many other projects I've done in the past, music is an essential component of my work. For The Ark, both music and animations were created at the same time, one bringing inspiration to the other. I've been working for a while with Squeaky Lobster, and sharing our thoughts while we're creating the piece has become very natural over the years.

Credits:

The trail consisted of the following four works:

Onion Skin, by Olivier Ratsi & Thomas Vaquié

The Ark, by Romain Tardy & Squeaky Lobster

3Destruct | Oaxaca, by Yannick Jacquet, Thomas Vaquié & Jeremie Peeters

Réplica, by Laurent Delforge & Thomas Vaquié

Proyecta Oaxaca producers: Manuel Alcala, Samuel Rivera

Proyecta Oaxaca technical director: Azael Saenz

Concept & Visual design by Romain Tardy

Music composed by Squeaky Lobster

Project management & production by Nicolas Boritch

The Ark is a site specific installation, commissioned by and presented during Proyecta Oaxaca, festival de diseño y artes digitales.

For more on Antivj, check out our doc below: