Next to Focus

Next to Focus was an interactive performance/installation where a performer actively produces or relocates the sound, and at the same time, is driven and mobilized by it. It seeks to create a physical experience in which the Cartesian dichotomy between significance and signifier is challenged. The collaborators—choreographer Maria Kefirova, visual artist Miguel A. Melgares, and composer and sound designer Martin Messier—worked at EMPAC on choreographing movement of sound in relation to the performers’ body and static objects. A large-scale ceiling truss allowed rigging of multiple hanging speakers and objects—rocks—that could be swung and choreographed. The artists worked on the design and programming of surround lighting to cast shadows from the swinging motion of the rocks.

Miguel Angel Melgares is a visual-performance artist based in Amsterdam, whose work incorporates performance, installation, films, photography and site-specific interventions. Bulgarian born, Maria Kefirova settled in Montréal in 1992. Working as a performer, she has developed a distinct choreographic practice that merges dance, theater, performance, and video. Martin Messier is a composer, performance artist, and videographer who explores the relationship between electroacoustic music and other art forms.