MARTIN MESSIER | SEWING MACHINE ORCHESTRA

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MARTIN MESSIER | SEWING MACHINE ORCHESTRA

Singer sewing machines, objects charged with collective memory and family histories, evoke a transfigured past brought back to the present and decontextualized. In Sewing Machine Orchestra, twelve domestic machines, collected and diverted from their utilitarian function, become the protagonists of a choreography orchestrated by computer and amplified by contact microphones.

Directly inspired by the performance of the same name, this installation reveals the sound and light potential of this familiar object. Unsettling in the agitation it generates, the work evolves in a crescendo of sound: like a polycephalic mechanical monster, the machines come to life with increasing intensity, filling the space with a low tone.

The omnipresent light accentuates the spectral effect of the installation. It transcends the overall choreography and casts the shadows of these ghostly objects, symbolically reanimating an industrial and domestic past. This hybrid work invites us to take part in an unsettling experiment on our links to collective memory and its materiality.

Concept, programming, light and sound
Martin Messier

Technical director during creative process
Jean-François Piché

Technical director
Maxime Bouchard

Producer
14 lieux

Co-producer
Maison des Arts de Créteil