José de la Paz Gómez · El Porvenir Cultural · 8 February 2002
Tired of the exhaustion of traditional artistic fields, visual artist and researcher Miguel Chevalier decided to explore new paths. For the Mexican-born artist, computer art can generate emotions just like more conventional artistic forms.
With French writer Jean-Pierre Balpe and Italian composer Jacopo Baboni-Schilingi he therefore undertook Metápolis, an interactive virtual-reality installation created specifically for MARCO and inspired by Monterrey. It opens today at 8.30 p.m. in Room 11 on the cultural venue’s upper floor.
“Traditional artistic fields are already very thoroughly studied—this is not pejorative—so we must explore new forms, such as computers, which can also awaken emotions,” Chevalier said.
The installation combines fragments of Monterrey images in two and three dimensions, hybrid music and electronically generated writing to offer a surprising urban vision. Over 300 square metres, it immerses visitors in an interactive environment of three curved screens, whose projections can be viewed from outside and inside the room.
Inside, viewers are active: their presence and intervention modify image, text and sound using three control cylinders. They may interact with light sensors to reconstruct urban spaces, choose poetry and a language—French or Spanish—to produce real-time texts, or combine and intensify sounds.
Before the opening, at 7.30 p.m., Miguel Chevalier, Jean-Pierre Balpe and Jacopo Baboni-Schilingi will give a talk in MARCO’s auditorium addressing the installation’s concepts and basic elements. Admission is free to the public.
Caption: exploring new paths for making art.