Our ongoing dossier on the topic continues with the artistic director and CEO of MUTEK, a renowned festival dedicated to digital creativity, taking place from Tuesday, September 8 to Sunday, September 13.
PAN M 360: When the pandemic hit last March, how did you react?
ALAIN MONGEAU: We were getting ready to present our international component, as we do every year at this time. We then put everything on hold and started to think about what was going to happen, how to position ourselves, to understand what event we could present with the economic implications in context.
PAN M 360: So you decided to hold an event, no matter what. What would the framework be?
AM: Instead of skipping a year, an option we had considered, we decided to change our presentation dates to avoid the ban on summer festivals, and set up an event that could take place no matter what, with or without an audience. We came up with the idea of a hybrid event, both virtual and in front of a limited audience, which would be presented on real stages. In this way, we think we can generate a larger outreach by imagining the transposition of these real performances in a virtual space.
PAN M 360: You made an initial screening of 300 local submissions, resulting in 30 bookings. Among the guests are Martin Messier, Line Katcho, Guillaume Cliche, Alexis Langevin-Tétrault, Tati au Miel, Pelada, Vigliensoni, Patrick Watson with modular synths, Guillaume Coutu-Dumont, Ouri, Wasafiri, Priori, Samito/Boogieman… How does it all come together?
AM: We wanted to preserve the essence of the festival and thus cover a rather vast range of styles by grouping them into three series: PLAY, EXPÉRIENCE, and NOCTURNE. The PLAY series is the most experimental, presented in the 5e Salle at Place des Arts, and encourages exploration in audiovisual creation and digital arts. Normally, the EXPÉRIENCE series is presented on our outdoor stage, this year it is at the 5e Salle at PdA and at the Satosphère. Our NOCTURNE series is more clubby, more rhythmic, and takes place over the three evenings of the weekend at the SAT.
PAN M 360: It was obvious that local programming was necessary given the travel constraints for foreign artists. So how are your 27 international programs coming along?
AM: Our CONNECT series is reminiscent of INTERCONNECT two years ago. This time, the 27 exclusive programs come from our foreign partners – the MUTEK festivals in Barcelona, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, San Francisco, and Tokyo, not to mention three partner organizations from France, Italy, and South Korea.
PAN M 360: Since the capacity of the audience is extremely limited, how did you imagine the virtual presentation of MUTEK Montreal would be?
AM: We have developed a platform specifically for the festival, which is free to sign up for, and people are also invited to support MUTEK’s mission. The platform consists of three virtual stages, a gallery featuring some 20 interactive works, an auditorium where some of the content from the MUTEK Forum (our daytime segment) is presented, and an archive room that offers a selection of archives recorded over the past 20 years. More precisely, everything that is broadcast from the Satosphère is broadcast in real time, everything that is presented in the 5e Salle is broadcast on a delayed basis, the day after each performance.
PAN M 360: Virtual concert presentations have been proliferating since the beginning of the crisis. How do you avoid redundancy?
AM: Our platform aims to create a community for sharing experiences. For example, each stage will have a “discussion room” managed by a moderator. The user will also be able to choose the angles from which to observe the performance he or she is attending. So we want this MUTEK to be more than a streaming experience, we want to take the idea of an online festival one step further.
