Initially an immersive virtual reality work by artist Stéphanie Morissette, Méandres has been adapted to offer an online experience in the comfort of your own home. The experience takes you on a journey through the connections of the brain's white matter. You move through a mysterious universe. A labyrinth of fiber bundles envelops us like a forest to be explored. This environment is fragile, affected by our presence and behavior.

Inspired by Imeka’s ground breaking research on free water as a biomarker of neuroinflammation, on axonal loss and demyelination, Meanders takes us forward in a poetic manner through the aging of the brain.

The collaboration between artist Stéphanie Morissette and author Pattie O'Green resulted in the creation of 24 visual and poetic fragments, punctually unveiled on social networks and added to day by day in the web work, immersing us in the immersive, contemplative universe first created for virtual reality. This photographic, sound and poetic experience was created in collaboration with interactive designer Yannick Guéguen.

Created specifically for the web project, Pattie O'Green's poetry takes the point of view of light to reflect on its different roles in the work and in life. To light can mean to open up a space or, on the contrary, to enclose it. Illumination can help us see something better, but it can also blind us. By exploring this polysemy, the author's texts underline and question the place of light in Stéphanie Morissette's work, constantly redefined through experience.

The original project was born of collaboration with the brain imaging company Imeka, the center en art actuel Sporobole and TOPO, and was made possible thanks to financial support from CALQ and the City of Sherbrooke.

Photo credit :
Yves Harnois

Stéphanie Morissette

stephaniemorissette.com | Instagram

For each of her projects, Stéphanie Morissette creates a narrative environment. She explores or revisits a theme from different perspectives. Her work focuses on human behavior throughout history and on conflicts related to the use of technology in both our daily lives and the geopolitical sphere. The artist is also interested in the impact of technology on nature and the psychology of the various actors who use it. Formally, her installations consist of paper, motors, drawings, photos, animations, and videos. This hybrid approach seeks to transcend the mediums themselves. The introduction of volume and movement into her two-dimensional works gives her work a serial and sequential aspect that is reminiscent of cinema and comic books. Her aesthetic—which seems naive at first glance but is tinged with black humor—allows her to tackle disturbing subjects. Stéphanie Morissette lives and works in Sherbrooke. In 2017, she won the Conseil des arts du Québec Award for Work of the Year in the Estrie region for her exhibition L’inquiète forêt.Her paper and video works have been presented in Germany, England, Belgium, Canada, China, Spain, the United States, Finland, Iceland, Poland, Syria, Taiwan, and Turkey at major events such as Les Rencontres Traverse Vidéo in Toulouse (2019), Les Rendez-Vous du Cinéma Québécois (2018), the International Symposium of Electronic Arts (ISEA) in Hong Kong (2016), the Women Make Waves Film and Video Festival in Taiwan (2011), and the 10th Istanbul International Biennial of Contemporary Art (2007). Stéphanie Morissette has been involved with several arts organizations and festivals over the past 20 years.

Méandres | Stéphanie Morissette

2021 - Immersive and poetic web artwork

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Méandres | Stéphanie Morissette

Stéphanie Morissette

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