Immersive Multimedia Installation
< Flying Soul> is an immersive multimedia installation by French artist Li Chevalier that focuses on the expressive power of a trans-disciplinary work which combines the visible and the audible into a single emotional empowering body. The project is composed of a series of installations by artist li Chevalier set in specific sites, such as abandoned industrial zones, deserted villages, polluted beaches, remains of once set-ablaze sites of worship, historical districts forcefully disfigured under political pressure. Those sites are silent testimonies to the desolation caused by human hubris and actions driven by blind ideological, radicalized religious, anti-religious or commercial pursuits.
The draft version of this work is based on the artist’s physical installation of hundreds of string instruments in the ruins of an ancient city. From this installation, she drew her first body of photographic and video footage, which she developed later into video animation using music by French Composer Karol Beffa . The work shows an eerie scenery of a civilization sunk at the bottom of an ocean, from which violins emerge, flying into the sky and mourning over the disaster : a metaphorical vision of re-surging souls escaped from the sunk Titanic.
Drifting away from the dominating trend of conceptual art , today’s prevailing form of expression , “Flying soul”, with a reconstructive approach, suggests an alternative voice by merging a brand-new digital art media with a Karol Beffa’s contemporary music piece beautified by a classical touch. This echoes the most fundamental longing of human beings for sensitiveness and poetry, values that seem snubbed in the robotized post-industrial world .
Resonance with Covid-19 confinement
In the current pandemic landscape, mankind has been driven into an unprecedented state of confinement where the once busy streets have given way to silent fear. The sudden constraints on our physical movements have given rise to art works focused around therelationship. The submitted project < flying soul> is an endeavour to go beyond that theme into an exploration of thetriangular relationship. Images of the flying violins into the sky are a metaphorical vision of our spiritual freedom , casting light on the human being’s ability to transcend physical confinement to carry on a spiritual journey.
Site specific display Considering the Covid-19 onslaught on indoor creative spaces, alternatives such as public squares, streets , are considered for the physical exhibition which could take a form of pop-up show . It is an opportunity to involve the viewer in a spontaneous immersive art display. Should public venues and gatherings be prohibited, the display can take the form of video projection from indoors onto a thin curtain that can be seen from outside. Finally, a video clip will be streamed through an online virtual show on the channels of our different partners.
Franco British Exchange Partnership in Education program
London Central Saint Martins College of Arts And Design
The project under construction will participate in the autumn education program of CSM with the support from Professor Margot Bann. Online workshop and masterclass will be scheduled accordingly to the pandemic evolution. The online program will allow those who are away from campus and spread throughout the world to be involved in an interactive discussion with Li Chevalier, who will share her live experience from the project and her personal approach as a multicultural and interdisciplinary artist, who has gone from music to visual art, in between Paris and London.
