Guest
Presented in Nantes, France September 20, 2017 until January 7, 2018 Also in Moscow, Russia, from October 12, 2017 until November 12, 2017 As part of the festivities surrounding the Grand Bibliothèque’s 10th anniversary, Ex Machina has created, based on an original idea by Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, an exhibition inspired by Alberto Manguel’s The Library at Night. In this work, the Argentine-born Canadian author addresses the philosophical, logical, architectural and social dimensions that underlie any library’s existence. Multifaceted, The Library at Night offers visitors a museum-like, design-based and virtual immersion experience. The Ex Machina team offers a personalized scenography with 10 libraries, real or imagined, an invitation to take a journey from Sarajevo to Mexico and from Alexandria to the bottom of the sea on board the Nautilus, by means of virtual reality. Upon entering the first room, the visitor discovers a reproduction of Alberto Manguel’s library. This initial step allows the visitor to enter the author’s universe while adjusting to the relative darkness of the exhibition. The second room, the forest, is the heart of the scenographic experience. Wandering through this wooded landscape, the visitor encounters a space that contrasts with the order and rigour that characterize libraries. There the visitor will find stations where, by means of glasses using a 360° immersion technology, he will be transported to a virtual reality. This project uses a 360° video immersion technology. This exhibition is a voyage through time, and around the world, to 10 mythic places—an immersive and sensory adventure that involves both our intelligence and our memory. - - - Director Robert Lepage Co designer and creative director Steve Blanchet Author, co designer and narrator Alberto Manguel Set designer Marie-Renée Bourget Harvey, assisted by Marie McNicoll Sound design Jean-Sébastien Côté Lighting design LightFactor Production director Julie Marie Bourgeois, assisted by Valérie Lambert Technical director Pauline Schwab Visual Effects Volta VFX Supervisor Nicolas-Denis Robitaille Digital set artist Richard Bergeron Head of Compositing Nathalie Girard Lead 3D artist Éric Maltais Director of photography Sébastien Gros Technical consultant and UX Design David Leclerc Filming coordinator Vanessa Landry-Claverie Producer/Ex Machina Michel Bernatchez Extras: Félix-Antoine Cantin Claudia Chillis-Rivard Étienne Courville Nadine Desjardins Patrice Ducharme-Castonguay Étienne Lou Virginie Morin-Laporte Jules Ronfard Gabriel-Antoine Roy Rosemarie Sabor Elisabeth Smith Candice Bouchet Ex Machina is funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, Quebec's Arts and Literature Council and the City of Quebec.
