A new artistic video game by pixels-collectif (Andrée-Anne Mercier, Frédérique Bordeleau and Sandrine Cadieux), Brumeopened the 2024-2026 programming of TOPO, which focuses on the themes of nostalgia, ecology and simulacra. On 29 February 2024, from 5.30pm, this new installation in the Vitrine TOPO presented a warm - if not disquieting - future, and brought February 2024 to a close under the same auspices. The window display, open Monday to Saturday from noon to 5pm, allowed visitors to play the game via an arcade terminal. It took around forty minutes to play the game in its entirety.

Brume is a character made of water whose mission is to put out the fires threatening the town of Picville-sur-Rivière. Knowing nothing about humans’ way of life, Brume discovers them through each object saved from the flames, quickly forming an idea of the causes of this climate disaster.

Brume, c’est un personnage composé d’eau qui a pour mission d’éteindre les feux menaçant la ville de Picville-sur-Rivière. Ne connaissant rien du mode de vie des humains, Brume les découvre à travers chaque objet sauvé des flammes et se fait vite une idée des causes derrière cette catastrophe climatique.

Driven by an eco-anxiety at once paralysing and motivating to act urgently, with Brume pixels·collectif proposes a challenge. How can we imagine other ways of inhabiting this planet when comfort is so comfortable?

Brume is an invitation to play: to play for pleasure, to think, to foil the everyday, to imagine other futures.

Brume was made in collaboration with the sound designer Guillaume Plourde. Phoebe Yī Lìng has translated Brume into English. The project is funded by the Canada Council for the Arts.