Page principale

FRET

FRETTE

a collaborative intercity interlanguage interpersonal

sound art project

IN FRET.TE WE TRUST

apkekteifteiintcjoenvenient (43s)

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The FRET/FRETTE™ collective (originally FRED-FRETTE due to miscommunication) is patent protected by ILOWOP (International Law of Writing on Paper).

A drawing of Fred the ferret speaking its mother tongue: fritterish

FRET/FRETTE OST (27s)

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How to pronounce FRET/FRETTE (22s)

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Dutch to french to dutch arabic phone exercise (22s)

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Meedoen aan een uitwisseling met drie Canadese kunststudenten?

Dat was uitkijken naar ontdekken en bijleren.

Drie nieuwe visies op geluidskunst. Werkwijzen. Artistieke universums.

Een hartverwarmende, Québécois kunstschool. Een nieuw land. Een cultuur van poutine en veel te duur bier.

Ik had hoge verwachtingen en wanneer ik terugkijk op dit project zijn die verwachtingen ingevuld. Het was een artistieke revelatie! Meer dan dat was het vooral (en geheel onverwacht) ook een intense persoonlijke les.

Ik stap graag uit de comfortzone, tast de grenzen van mijn kunnen af.

Maar blijkbaar deed ik dat voordien binnen een nog grootsere, veilige bubbel.

Wat blijft over wanneer ook die onvoorzien wordt doorprikt?

De eerste helft van het project vond plaats in Quebec.

Als Brusselse geluidskunstenaars werden we daar feestelijk op een piëdestal gezet.

Overdag werkten we met de Canadese studenten aan ons artistiek project. ’s Avonds schuimden we vernissages, lezingen en etentjes af. Voortdurend omringt door inspirerende kunstliefhebbers die verwachtingsvol hadden uitgekeken naar onze komst.

Nieuwsgiering probeerden we alle indrukken zo zorgvuldig mogelijk in ons op te nemen. We werden ondergedompeld in een geheel nieuwe community, maar daar waren ook wij nieuw. Zij waren op hun beurt nieuwgierig naar ons. Alle vragen die dagelijks in het Frans of Engels op ons werden afgevuurd vormden samen een spiegel waardoor we plots oog in oog met onszelf kwamen te staan. Wat blijft er van je over wanneer de ander jouw referentiekader niet kent?

Niemand wist waar ons huidig werk ooit begon, wat onze zwaktes of sterktes zijn, onze opleiding en school deed geen belletje rinkelen, …. Zelfs onze grootste voorbeelden bleken voor kunstenaars aan de andere kant van de wereld soms geheel onbekend!

Er viel een genuanceerde achtergrond weg waarboven we de laatste jaren vrijuit konden creëren. In Quebec waren wij onontdekt terrein, blanco. Ik probeerde dat blanco blad voor de ander zo nauwkeurig mogelijk in te kleuren. Door te antwoorden op hun vragenzee ging ik op zoek naar mijzelf als kunstenaar. Daarbovenop vond ik voor sommige antwoorden de juiste woorden niet, dan groef ik diep in mijn Engelse en Franse woordenschat maar moest ik mij vaak neerleggen bij een afgeleide van wat ik eigenlijk écht bedoelde.

Datzelfde talenspel heeft ons uiteindelijk allemaal in de greep genomen, werd misschien wel de kern van ons project. Een samenwerking met zes wordt sowieso intensief.

Maar een samenwerking tussen zes blanco bladen?

Vermoeid door de jetlag?

Zonder gemeenschappelijke, vertrouwde taal?

Geconfronteerd met hun identiteit als individu, kunstenaar en groep?

Dat is samen op zoek gaan naar plezier binnen die intense zoektocht.

Dat is een les voor het leven die vuurwerk geeft!

Thank you daisy, take it easy – Relax!

– Hannah Lyssens

Did you know? Fret.te.s don’t make the difference between making a mess and cleaning.

First encounters (1m33s)

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The fun began (1m34s)

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First encounters (45s)

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(Auto) correct speaking (24s)

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Relax (1m12s)

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Youtube karaokes are a FRET/FRETTE traditional medicine.

l a r x e

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Hetsamenwerken met de Cadenasse kunststudenten opende een nieuwe wereld voor mij. Dit vooral door hun manier van werken. De “niet nadenken, gewoon doen” waarover ik het heb in de artist statement is iets wat voor de Canadeze studenten een gewoonte is. Ze zijn niet bang om te spelen.

Pas in Quebec kon ik mijn eigen grenzen en soms vastlopende denkwijzen volledig loslaten. Dit loslaten is iets wat ik altijd zal blijven meenemen. Iets wat me veranderd heeft.

We maakten verschillende scores, oefeningen en experimenten geïnspireerd door onze eigen gevoelens en communicatie naar elkaar. Deze groeiden uiteindelijk, stapje per stapje, uit tot een grotere performance.

– Anouk Kellner

Bondice 10 (51s)

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Very nice meeting 💕💕 (1m06s)

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(don't) look at me in the eyes (9m26s)

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Doen! Gewoon doen! Niet nadenken, maar doen!

Vanaf het eerste moment dat wij samen met de Québécois in de studio doken, merkte ik dat we een andere manier hanteerden van werken. De Québécois zijn eerder van het doe-principe, terwijl de Belgen vaak eerst nadenken en het gene wat ze dan hebben bedacht graag nog eens overdenken. En nog eens. En nog eens.

Wanneer ikzelf creëer, maak ik dan ook eerst een heel uitgebreid mentaal plan, waar ik dan vaak in verstrengeld raak waardoor het echte maken uitgesteld blijft. Het was dan ook een verademing om te zien hoe het ook anders kan en dat je uit trial and error veel meer haalt dan wanneer je jezelf opsluit in je mentale bovenkamer.

Tijdens de uitwisseling merkte ik dat ik zelf ook steeds meer en meer een vaste structuur/idee/plan kon loslaten en ik me hierdoor ook beter kon amuseren. Maar ook dat ik mijn eigen creativiteit plots geen grenzen meer oplegde, waardoor the sky effectief the limit werd.

Door deze uitwisseling ben ik op een nieuwe manier gaan creëren, een manier die voor mezelf veel natuurlijker aanvoelt dan hoe ik het voordien deed. Mijn nieuwe motto luidt dan ook: Doen! Gewoon doen! Niet nadenken, maar doen! En dat heb ik te danken aan de Québécois. Merci.

– Tinneke Van Ransbeeck

L’amitié est souvent synonyme de plaisir, de découvertes et de camaraderie.

Rapidement, le désir de jouer et de s’amuser s’est exprimé au sein de FRET/FRETTE. Similaire à un carré de sable pour enfants, notre première rencontre artistique s’est faite sur le ton de la curiosité et de l’enthousiasme.

« How about we start by jamming? »

Nous nous lancions alors, quelques heures à peine après l’arrivée des Belges à Québec, dans une improvisation où les sons et les corps s’éparpillaient comme les instruments et les objets. Dans des mouvements heureux de cohésion et d’intimité, nous trouvions tranquillement notre identité comme groupe et notre identité comme individu dans ce groupe.

Les idées, les expérimentations, les jeux – appelez-les comme vous voudrez – continuèrent à se chevaucher et à se mélanger au fil de la semaine. Bientôt, ils devinrent des anecdotes et des moments de complicité. Le nom FRET/FRETTE, par exemple, cristallisa notre affection pour les jeux de mots. Ainsi, notre furet (« fret » en néerlandais) faisant office de mascotte tient toujours une bière à la main (« frette », argot québécois désignant une bière fraîche).

Nous faisions aussi connaissance en dehors du contexte artistique, autour d’un verre, d’une chanson au karaoké ou d’un bon souper cuisiné avec soin par nos mentors, dont la contribution au sentiment d’unité n’est pas à négliger. C’est dans ces moments exutoires que de nouvelles connivences naissaient. Celleux dont la langue différait en studio parlaient parfois le même dialecte en dehors et se trouvaient finalement des affinités jusque-là insoupçonnées. C’était par ailleurs l’occasion d’apprendre de nouveaux mots, mais aussi de nouvelles coutumes; de rencontrer de nouvelles personnes. Les Belges apprirent à fêter l’Halloween avec nos ami.e.s québécois.e.s, tout comme nous avons appris à célébrer la fête de la Fierté avec leurs ami.e.s bruxellois.e.s.

Le plaisir et la fête constituaient, en effet, les racines de notre familiarité, mais c’est dans les moments plus difficiles que notre camaraderie se confirmait. À travers la fatigue, les doutes et les mésententes artistiques ou langagières, l’écoute et la bienveillance primaient. Il a toujours été question d’être attentif aux désirs et aux besoins de chacun.e.s et de chercher l’unanimité, démarche qui amène souvent son propre lot de difficultés, difficultés que l’on éprouve dans bien des relations intimes. Mais le maître mot restait le même : plaisir. Ce mantra nous permettait de faire les compromis nécessaires au bien-être de chaque membre du collectif et de cultiver la foi que nous avions en notre projet.

Celui-ci se concrétisa, sans trop de surprises, en une performance sensible et festive où nous avons recréé, en quelque sorte, les différents épisodes de notre aventure artistique et interpersonnelle : une chanson à partager; une cacophonie à travers laquelle s’entendre; des discussions et des monologues alambiqués; et une finale incertaine, mais assurément exubérante.

L’amitié est souvent synonyme de plaisir, de découverte et de camaraderie.

FRET/FRETTE est désormais synonyme d’amitié.

– Samah Saidi

About the project

FRET/FRETTE is the result of an unprecedented project of bilateral exchange between two higher education institutions—the École d’art, Université Laval and the Royal Institute for Theatre, Cinema & Sound (RITCS)—and two artist centres dedicated to sound creation—Avatar in Québec City and Q-O2 in Brussels.

Three students from the École d’art and three students from the RITCS were selected to participate in two intensive residencies in sound art, during which their research, ideas, sensitivities, and skills were interwoven across the development of a sound performance, which was presented at Q-O2, Brussels, on May 7th, 2023. Each residency was hosted by a space for research and professional creation: Avatar—an artist-run centre dedicated to audio art and electronics (2022)—and Q-O2—a workspace for experimental music and sound art (2023).

This exceptional extracurricular experience permitted all the student–artists to discover a new creative context and to participate in their first international creative residency. They also had the opportunity to familiarise themselves with differing pedagogical methods and academic environments, associated with visual art (École d’art, UL) in one case and radiophonic creation (RITCS) in the other.

This digital publication aims to reflect the student–artists’ spirit of openness and experimentation during the entirety of the creative process. The singularity of their languages—Flemish Dutch and Québécois French—revealed itself in games of translation and language invention, for which electronic interfaces (telephones, computers) proved incredibly fruitful. In this way, speech, in its relationship to writing, but also as pure expressive sonic force, became malleable, mutable, and profoundly playful.

This project was conceived and initiated by Julie Faubert (École d’art, Université Laval), who coordinated it with Julia Eckart (Q-O2), in collaboration with Myriam Lambert (Avatar) and Jeroen Vandesande (RITCS).

Delphy Boudreau

Bio

Delphy Boudreau is a visual artist from Montreal living and working in Quebec City, Canada. She holds a bachelor’s degree in visual and media arts from Université Laval (2023) and is currently completing a certificate in digital audio production, also at Université Laval (2024). She is the technical director of À l’est de vos empires, a digital cross-platform cultural magazine based in Quebec, and the co-founder of the festival L’Écoute, a multi-disciplinary event showcasing artists who explore sound.

Statement

I am looking for what we forget in our daily life; the inaudible, the invisible, the banal. I recontextualize data, gestures, sounds, and objects, through installations, devices, or images that aim for a certain abstraction. I am looking for continuous sounds, almost inaudible; the sounds that surround us without being heard, inside and outside. I manipulate these sounds in order to bring out their singularities, generating new listening perspectives. Through devices, interfaces, or protocols, I translate the captured material into its formal characteristics. I use walking as a creative tool, which leads to new observations of my visual and sonic environment. Along my steps, I want to develop a state of acute presence that allows me to translate this material into works, in order to emphasize their poetic aspect. I exploit the little and I appreciate the banal.

Anouk Kellner

Bio

Anouk Kellner is a sound artist with a broader interest in other media. She majored in audiovisual arts (radio) at RITCS in 2023 with the master’s project Airchoir No. 1: Organum for 8 Coded Organ Voices, an installation with a programmed composition for 8 organ pipes and inflatable objects.

Anouk has always been interested in music, but it was only in her late teens that she became fascinated by sound in a broader sense. Within her radio/audio course, she was given the space to extensively experiment with this new interest.

Now, she mainly makes sound art, sound compositions, installations, and audio documentaries (e.g., Waiting for Land, 2022). She likes to combine sound with other media, such as textiles. She is fascinated by electronics. In her work, Anouk creates sonic landscapes in which she aims to immerse the listener by letting them experience everything in their own way, opening space for connection.

Statement

Once, a teacher said to me; « Things don’t come by sitting like Rodin thinking on a stone, but simply by doing ».

So don’t think, just do it.

This is something I’ve learned over the past four years. Give yourself time to learn, even if things don’t work out immediately. As long as you surrender to what fascinates you and makes you curious, time will get you there. Time is essential. I want to give the chance for everything to unfold slowly, even in my own work. As long as you just keep playing, time goes favourably along with you.

Hannah Lyssens

Bio

Hannah Lyssens is a young artist born in Sint-Niklaas, Belgium, who has since fallen in love with Brussels. In this inspiring city, she graduated with a master’s degree in audiovisual arts (radio) from the Royal Institute for Theatre, Cinema & Sound (RITCS). Hannah is an audio-maker, storyteller, and technical nerd with a passion for sound, music, and listening. Besides audio, Hannah’s second love is the performing arts. She desires to keep « playing » with sound. For her bachelor’s thesis, she explored the possibilities of transforming live movements into a mesmerizing soundtrack. This resulted in the performance Sonatine Tangel Bong, a plea for curiosity and play. For her master’s thesis, she made the audio documentary Arthur about growing, searching, and doubting.

Statement

When I look back at the past few years as an art student, there is one dominant desire that I’ll take with me into the future. A goal that I always aim to retain while creating, a slogan I want to share with others: KEEP ON PLAYING!

Find the right balance between wonder and notion in your artistic practice. Keep challenging yourself and others continuously. Think of your work as a call for curiosity and play—these parameters lead to unexpected insights!

Get rid of cold feet. Dive fully into your ideas. Embody your work.

Be a breath of fresh air that shakes up your audience. Activate your listeners. Drag them into your creative game where a carefully chosen framework gives them the necessary grip. Keep renewing yourself and the arts field, grow.

KEEP. ON. PLAYING.

Samah Saidi

Bio

Samah was born in Tunisia and works in Quebec City, Canada. His video, sound, and performance work has been shown in Quebec City, Brussels, and online in numerous shows, festivals, and artistic residencies. In 2023, he received the Inter/Le Lieu and René-Richard awards for his work in the group exhibition DENSE/DENSE (École d’art, Université Laval). He is currently pursuing a master’s degree in visual arts at Université Laval.

Statement

Samah Saidi is interested in the different cultures he grew up in, looking to find where they meet, where they disband, and where they merge. Through video and sound installations targeting specific senses of perception, he aims to reveal the junctions of his Tunisian and Quebecois heritage.

His recent work focuses on speech in French, English, and Tunisian Arabic. Through a process of deconstruction of those languages, he is interested in the transformative potential of their mixing. His pieces combine words and expressions, speaking and writing, hearing and sight, so that language is confused as much as our perception of it. New, fantasized dialects are created through each combination, leaving us wondering if they will ever be real and questioning our identities, both as individuals and as a group.

Vincent Thériault

Bio

Vincent Thériault is currently a graduate student at Université Laval. He is the recipient of a scholarship from the Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Société et Culture (2022). His collaborative works have been shown at various places in the province of Quebec, primarily with the performance collective MMV2005 (Tour de Bras, EXEcentrer, Québec Musiques Parallèles, Festival OFF). He was part of the project PLEIN JEU from Avatar and appeared on Interstices Ductiles, a pipe organ–computer album with Simon Elmaleh and Jocelyn Robert. He also produced live sound for the puppet show Mutatis Mutandis! (Laurence Petitpas), which toured in Quebec City, Montreal, and Kelowna.

Statement

Vincent Thériault works in sound and electronic art through playful improvisations. He likes to dream and build various assemblages from what lies around him, whether it be words, contexts, or found trash. Vincent strives to shape his consistency to what he finds, aims to circulate among his findings with a slippery-touch. As he likes to tear off the thin skin from his fingertips, he is fascinated by the peeling of indirect contacts, leaning on things by translating, deriving, curving, or speculating. This he does through an ever-expanding array of disparate technical and conceptual devices, which he constantly re-articulates towards the next situation to appear.

Tinneke Van Ransbeeck

Bio

Tinneke Van Ransbeeck is a jack-of-all-trades, based in Brussels. With a master’s degree in radio, she is now ready to experiment with sound in all its forms. Tinneke excels as a voice actress, podcast creator, and audio theatre-maker. Additionally, she shares her knowledge and passion as a teacher of speech, giving workshops and radio classes. Her vibrant personality extends to her love for karaoke, over which she reigns as the undisputed queen. Mic drop.

Statement

How to communicate when you can’t communicate? What happens when six individuals are in search of each other, but don’t speak the same language? What is a language and which scores can be used? And above all, how to keep it fun?

Credits

1. Samah Saidi, 2022, photo
2. Tinneke Van Ransbeeck, 2022, photo
3. Vincent Thériault, 2022, photo
4. Julie Faubert, 2022, photo
5. Vincent Thériault, 2022, sound montage
6. FRET/FRETTE, 2022, video still
7. Julie Faubert, 2022, video
8. Julie Faubert, 2022, photo
9. Tinneke Van Ransbeeck, 2022, photo montage
10. Samah Saidi, 2022, music
11. Julie Faubert, 2022, video still
12. FRET/FRETTE, 2022, sound
13. Samah Saidi, 2022, photo
14. Tinneke Van Ransbeeck, 2022, photo montage
15. Samah Saidi, 2022, photo
16. Julie Faubert, 2022, video still
17. Tinneke Van Ransbeeck, 2022, photo
18. FRET/FRETTE, 2022, sound
19. FRET/FRETTE, 2022, video
20. FRET/FRETTE, 2022, sound
21. FRET/FRETTE, 2022, video
22. FRET/FRETTE, 2022, video
23. FRET/FRETTE, 2022, sound
24. FRET/FRETTE, 2022, sound
25. Marius Tarakdjioglou, 2023, photo
26. Vincent Thériault, 2022, video montage
27. FRET/FRETTE, 2022, sound
28. Marius Tarakdjioglou, 2023, photo
29. FRET/FRETTE, 2023, sound
30. FRET/FRETTE, 2023, text
31. Julie Faubert, 2023, photo
32. Han Lauwers, 2023, sound recording
33. Marius Tarakdjioglou, 2023, video
34. Tinneke Van Ransbeeck, 2022, photo montage
35. Marius Tarakdjioglou, 2023, photo
36. Vincent Thériault, 2023, text
37. Vincent Thériault, 2023, typography
38. Vincent Thériault, 2023, drawings
39. Vincent Thériault, 2023, drawings
40. Vincent Thériault, 2023, drawings
41. Marius Tarakdjioglou, 2023, photo
42. Vincent Thériault, 2023, drawings
43. Vincent Thériault, 2023, drawings
44. Vincent Thériault, 2023, drawings
45. Vincent Thériault, 2023, drawings
46. FRET/FRETTE, 2022, video
47. Myriam Lambert, 2022, video
48. Myriam Lambert, 2022, video
49. Myriam Lambert, 2022, photo
50. Delphy Boudreau, 2022, photo
51. Myriam Lambert, 2022, video
52. Delphy Boudreau, 2022, video
53. Samah Saidi, 2023, video montage
54. Myriam Lambert, 2022, photo
55. Myriam Lambert, 2022, photo
56. Tinneke Van Ransbeeck, 2022, photo montage
57. fretqueb, 2023, text
58. fretqueb, 2023, text
59. Vincent Thériault, 2022, text
60. FRET/FRETTE, 2023, sound
61. FRET/FRETTE, 2023, sound
62. Vincent Thériault, 2023, text
63. Julie Faubert, 2023, video
64. Han Lauwers, 2023, sound recording
65. Marius Tarakdjioglou, 2023, video
66. Anonymous, 2023, photo
67. Marius Tarakdjioglou, 2023, photo
68. Marius Tarakdjioglou, 2023, photo
69. Marius Tarakdjioglou, 2023, video
70. Anonymous, 2023, photo
71. Tinneke Van Ransbeeck, 2022, photo montage
72. Marius Tarakdjioglou, 2023, photo
73. Marius Tarakdjioglou, 2023, photo
74. Marius Tarakdjioglou, 2023, photo
75. Julie Faubert, 2023, photo
76. Marius Tarakdjioglou, 2023, video
77. Marius Tarakdjioglou, 2023, photo
78. Anonymous, 2023, photo
79. Marius Tarakdjioglou, 2023, photo
80. Tinneke Van Ransbeeck, 2022, photo montage
81. Marius Tarakdjioglou, 2023, photo
82. Marius Tarakdjioglou, 2023, video
83. Marius Tarakdjioglou, 2023, photo
84. Marius Tarakdjioglou, 2023, photo
85. Marius Tarakdjioglou, 2023, photo
86. Marius Tarakdjioglou, 2023, photo
87. Marius Tarakdjioglou, 2023, photo
88. Anonymous, 2022, photos
89. Tinneke Van Ransbeeck, 2022, photo
90. Delphy Boudreau, 2022, photo
91. Delphy Boudreau, 2022, video
92. FRET/FRETTE, 2022, photo
93. Tinneke Van Ransbeeck, 2022, photo montage

This project was made possible thanks to

École d’art, Université Laval / Q-O2

Avatar / Royal Institude of Theatre, Cinema and Sound (collaborators)

Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec / Vlaamse Regering (funding)

Tout droit réservé, 2023 ®