Biography(ies)

Justine Charland likes to reflect on the different social groups that gravitate around her in order to better understand her culture, her roots and the current political climate. Passionate about sounds, she believes she can better analyze such dynamics through the art that emerges from them, and thus better convey her feelings through artistic creation. In this way, her musical journey tends to bring together a multitude of horizons that reflects human complexity. With a background in classical music, having explored Quebec’s independent music scene and studied digital music, Justine enjoys re-exposing and re-questioning Judeo-Christian roots, as well as using components from popular movements such as punk, new-wave and even disco. In other ways, she seeks to incorporate a socio-political schema into her work through sound recording and by incorporating dialogue into her music. Justine has a strong interest in human rights, ecology, class struggle and mental health. In particular, she seeks to denounce gender and class inequalities, the excessive consumer society generated by capitalism, the exponential degradation of the Earth and stereotypes linked to anxiety, neurodivergence and consumer problems. She hopes that a revival of these themes among up-and-coming artists will bring significant change on a wider scale.

Specializing in electroacoustic performance art, Nicolas Bourgeois (a.k.a. Nickwav) creates denunciatory works charged with social commentary. He combines bold scenographic elements with musical coding systems to create worlds that are both intimate and dystopian. His main aim is to highlight his experience of the different sexual and gender minority realities through various projects, such as With Pride (2023). Studying digital music at Université de Montréal, he quickly developed a fascination for sound design and its transposition to the stage.

Originally from Îles-de-la-Madeleine, Nicolas develops his art by drawing inspiration from the environment and the close relationship between humans and their surroundings. He intersperses his work with field recordings, amplifying those sounds to which we have become insensitive. In collaboration with Justine Charland, the performance Écorces (2023) was interpreted to reflect the deterioration of nature and the anxiety caused by the idea of a not so bright environmental future.

JUSTINE CHARLAND & NICOLAS BOURGEOIS | SOUND CREATION

JUSTINE CHARLAND & NICOLAS BOURGEOIS

Les artistes Justine Charland et Nicolas Bourgeois, qui étudient au baccalauréat en musiques numériques de l’Université de Montréal, se sont vu offrir une résidence d’artiste de deux semaines à Sporobole! L’œuvre issue de cette résidence de création sera diffusée dans la vitrine sonore en 2024.

Justine Charland and Nicolas Bourgeois, students in the master’s program in sound creation at the Université de Montréal, were offered a two-week artist residency at Sporobole from August 23 to September 5, 2023. The work resulting from this residency will be played in the sound window in 2024.

Mur Murs

The installation Mur Murs reveals the secrets of woman-identifying individuals around Sherbrooke. Named after the 1981 documentary by acclaimed filmmaker Agnès Varda, the work seeks to open a dialogue between girls and women who don’t know each other, in an anonymous way. They are subject to the weight of expectations: what they must be, what their bodies must wear, what they must say, sometimes, and keep quiet, other times. Are women free to be what they want, or free to be what they can within a certain framework? Mur Murs aims to break down this social construct: go ahead, ladies, say what you want! Girls, teenagers, young mothers, single women, trans women, elderly women, grandmothers, all are invited to speak out. How do you like the flowers in spring? Why did you choose to be a mother? If all careers had been open to you at the time, what would you have liked to be? What’s your favorite street in Sherbrooke? What’s your favorite cheese? Topics can range from the profound to the everyday: all they have to do is float their thoughts and tell their stories.

Mur Murs is a collection of demographically varied testimonials, subsequently synthesized into snippets of experiences of the city. These anecdotes, projected on both sides, give the effect of a real improvised exchange, like an exquisite corpse wallpapered on a background of soaring ambiences. In Mur Murs, the emphasis is on creating a safe space where opinions can be expressed in a place where the voice is magnified.