L’oreille [é]tendue
Catherine Béchard & Sabin Hudon
L’oreille [é]tendue is a sound itinerary with 20 audio devices disseminated on 8 outdoor sites located between parc Victoria and bassin Louise in Quebec City, where hearing aids await the ear.
A map in hand, one can follow the itinerary in any particular order. Visitors are invited to discover 20 listening devices set in various outdoor sites within the city of Québec: parc Victoria – skate plaza, Parvis de l’église Saint-Roch, bibliothèque Gabrielle-Roy, Jardin de Saint-Roch, escalier de la Chapelle, place de la Gare, côte du Colonel-Dambourgès and bassin Louise.
These auditory points, selected to represent a diversity of urban sound atmosphere, prompt walkers to become aware of the sound events that usually go unnoticed. Each site has its own features, acoustic effects, colors and atmosphere. Through this designated itinerary scattered with hearing aids, walkers are invited to immerse themselves in an open, diversified acoustic landscape which they are a part of.
Catherine Béchard and Sabin Hudon are interdisciplinary artists based in Montreal. Béchard has an MA in Visual and Media Arts from the Université du Québec à Montréal and Hudon has a music formation. They have exhibited widely, notably at the Triennale Banlieue at la Maison des arts de Laval, the Biennale nationale de sculpture contemporaine in Trois-Rivières, at the MA Musée d’art in Rouyn-Noranda, the Centre d’exposition Lethbridge and Ellephant Gallery as part of the International Digital Art Biennial in Montreal, the Mois Multi in Quebec city, the Knockdown Center in Brooklyn, in the context of the event Quebec Digital Art in NYC, at the Device Art Triennal in Zagreb and at the National art Museum of China during the exhibition ThingWorld: International Triennal of New Media Art. Béchard and Hudon also produced permanent public works in Quebec.
