For its final Vitrine exhibition of 2023, TOPO announces a poetic work that gives voice to rocks chosen or imagined by Cléo-Palacio Quintin. At the launch on Friday November 3, the Quatuor Bozzini, who created the music for the project, will be invited to interpret the musical voice of a few rocks chosen by the public. Poet Thierry Dimanche, who wrote the poetic excerpts for the work, will in turn recite some of his own texts.

ALÉAS is a cycle of transdisciplinary creations combining the music and images (drawings, collages, objects, photographs, videos) of Cléo Palacio-Quintin with the poetry of Thierry Dimanche. The variations on matter presented in this kaleidoscopic object help to blur the boundaries between reality, illusion and the imaginary.

Eoliths ("dawn stones") are unusual flint fragments found in the geological strata of the Tertiary Era. When they were discovered in 1867, the impression that they had been fashioned by hand led to the belief that they were primitive tools used by humans (who would then have appeared more than 5 million years ago!) Doubt and debate persisted for a long time among anthropologists and geologists, until it was confirmed that they were indeed the product of natural phenomena.

The installation allows us to explore an imaginary world, featuring a panoply of eoliths, as created or chosen by Cléo. Each object has its own poetic voice and music performed by the Quatuor Bozzini.

This installation is part of the development process for a tablet application comprising a dozen interactive musical and poetic scenes, of which Échos et reflets des éolithes is one.

The artist would like to thank the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the Canada Council for the Arts for their support, as well as TOPO for supporting the development of the application.