PARALLEL LINES:
VIRTUAL ARTIST RESIDENCY
The idea of ‘being alone together’ as a defining condition of our contemporary lives has never been more real than it is right now. At this time of globally shared solitude, PHI invites artists to respond through creation.
Parallel Lines is a call to artists, of all disciplines, to exercise their agency through art, as a means of inquiry, expression and action. For sixty days, PHI will follow the creative processes of ten selected candidates, all of which will be documented on livingtraces.phi.ca.
Artists working in any discipline or interdisciplinary approach, and in any genre or set of inter-genres, had until April 1st to propose an online format project that could be created over sixty days.
Among the proposals received, ten (10) artists were selected. In addition to the $2,000 grant awarded to each of the winners, the artists' creative process will be documented on our platforms and the final projects will be presented on phi.ca.
Submissions are now closed.
Thank you to all 192 applicants!
The Artists
Visual arts
Adam
Born in Israel and raised in Vancouver, Adam Basanta has lived and worked in Montrea since 2010. Originally studying contemporary music composition, he has developed an artistic practice in mixed-media installations. Exhibited in galleries and institutions both in Canada and abroad, his works have received multiple awards. Through his installations, Adam Basanta investigates technology as a meeting point of concurrent, overlapping systems. His latest work, Artist Survival Station, is a fully automated performative, living, ecosystemic, food-producing sculpture. The final product, which will be documented in his studio, is a hybrid object that’s both aesthetic and functional.
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Adam
Basanta
Born in Israel and raised in Vancouver, Adam Basanta has lived and worked in Montrea since 2010. Originally studying contemporary music composition, he has developed an artistic practice in mixed-media installations. Exhibited in galleries and institutions both in Canada and abroad, his works have received multiple awards. Through his installations, Adam Basanta investigates technology as a meeting point of concurrent, overlapping systems. His latest work, Artist Survival Station, is a fully automated performative, living, ecosystemic, food-producing sculpture. The final product, which will be documented in his studio, is a hybrid object that’s both aesthetic and functional.
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Literature
Philippe
Passionate about podcasts, the media, and writing, Philippe Collard currently works as a writer at Lemay, a design and architecture firm. He’s the author of a few short stories and of the novel Bleu comme la lune, which was published by Leméac in 2012. He’s also occupied various tactical and strategic positions in the media and web sector, including the role of content manager at the National Film Board of Canada and of digital producer at Éditions Québec Amérique. His Interludes project will allow the public to follow the process of writing a novel on the topic of isolation, which will happen over a 60-day period that will ultimately lead to the book’s completion. During this time, the public will be able to comment on the novel, all while watching the author write in real time for 3 hours a day.
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Philippe
Collard
Passionate about podcasts, the media, and writing, Philippe Collard currently works as a writer at Lemay, a design and architecture firm. He’s the author of a few short stories and of the novel Bleu comme la lune, which was published by Leméac in 2012. He’s also occupied various tactical and strategic positions in the media and web sector, including the role of content manager at the National Film Board of Canada and of digital producer at Éditions Québec Amérique. His Interludes project will allow the public to follow the process of writing a novel on the topic of isolation, which will happen over a 60-day period that will ultimately lead to the book’s completion. During this time, the public will be able to comment on the novel, all while watching the author write in real time for 3 hours a day.
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Media/digital arts
Philippe
Philippe Dubost is a French multidisciplinary artist living in Montreal. With the help of light, video, smoke and mirrors, he has always tried to balance technical research with creative endeavour. Mainly working on short films and installations, his vision is to merge the physical and virtual world through light to create the unexpected. With his Caligramme creation tool, which he will put online when half finished, Philippe Dubost intends to give everyone the opportunity to write their own lively and vibrant poem. His goal is to create patchworks of haikus and unexpected forms out of collective instantaneous poetry.
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Philippe
Dubost
Philippe Dubost is a French multidisciplinary artist living in Montreal. With the help of light, video, smoke and mirrors, he has always tried to balance technical research with creative endeavour. Mainly working on short films and installations, his vision is to merge the physical and virtual world through light to create the unexpected. With his Caligramme creation tool, which he will put online when half finished, Philippe Dubost intends to give everyone the opportunity to write their own lively and vibrant poem. His goal is to create patchworks of haikus and unexpected forms out of collective instantaneous poetry.
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Media/digital artsGauche/
The Gauche/Droite collective is made up of Catherine D’Amours, illustrator and multimedia director at Moment Factory, and Nicolas S. Roy, creative director at Dpt. The brains behind multiple interactive and augmented reality installations, the duo merges art and technology to create unique experiences on a human scale. Their Ça va / It’s OK project is a form of street art for the web. It consists of distorting, altering and reinventing the façade and content of websites, through an extension on Chrome and Firefox. It transforms the web in real time, adding art to it and subtly playing with the visual and editorial content of the pages.
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Gauche/
Droite
The Gauche/Droite collective is made up of Catherine D’Amours, illustrator and multimedia director at Moment Factory, and Nicolas S. Roy, creative director at Dpt. The brains behind multiple interactive and augmented reality installations, the duo merges art and technology to create unique experiences on a human scale. Their Ça va / It’s OK project is a form of street art for the web. It consists of distorting, altering and reinventing the façade and content of websites, through an extension on Chrome and Firefox. It transforms the web in real time, adding art to it and subtly playing with the visual and editorial content of the pages.
Visit the studio
Music
Lexis (Alexis Charpentier) is a DJ, record collector, radio show host, curator and founder of passion projects. Above all, he is a champion for the music he loves, whether it’s found in dusty record bins or deep in the internet cache. Obsessed with the art of the mixtape, making musical collages to explore narratives, emotions, and imaginary soundtracks, Lexis is the founder of the Music Is My Sanctuary collective and the 24 Hours of Vinyl worldwide event series. For over 15 years he has been a pillar of the Montreal music scene as a DJ and event organizer. He also works as a music supervisor for brands and advertising clients. With Sonoramas pour le moment présent, Lexis wants to create 3 different soundscapes that explore 3 emotions, featuring music, field recordings and spoken word. He will then invite listeners to put on their favourite pair of headphones and go outside to listen to the 4 volumes.
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Lexis
Lexis (Alexis Charpentier) is a DJ, record collector, radio show host, curator and founder of passion projects. Above all, he is a champion for the music he loves, whether it’s found in dusty record bins or deep in the internet cache. Obsessed with the art of the mixtape, making musical collages to explore narratives, emotions, and imaginary soundtracks, Lexis is the founder of the Music Is My Sanctuary collective and the 24 Hours of Vinyl worldwide event series. For over 15 years he has been a pillar of the Montreal music scene as a DJ and event organizer. He also works as a music supervisor for brands and advertising clients. With Sonoramas pour le moment présent, Lexis wants to create 3 different soundscapes that explore 3 emotions, featuring music, field recordings and spoken word. He will then invite listeners to put on their favourite pair of headphones and go outside to listen to the 4 volumes.
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Media/digital artsMarilou
Marilou Lyonnais A. (LOUM) presents a reflective work on the current digital condition, through a multidisciplinary approach. Marilou’s visual practice is guided by her anecdotal relationship to the world, as well as by referentiality, music and new technologies. She’s applied this approach to her solo exhibition, INVALID, at Never Apart, to her music projects and to her numerous artistic collaborations, exhibited in major cultural institutions across Montreal. Her installation project, called DATA EYES: Plier des sites internet (Folding websites), is a study on the phenomenon of the times, derived from the post-internet and post-photographic condition. By projecting websites on origami affixed to a wall, and then capturing them through photography, Marilou creates an offline Internet place.
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Marilou
Lyonnais A.
Marilou Lyonnais A. (LOUM) presents a reflective work on the current digital condition, through a multidisciplinary approach. Marilou’s visual practice is guided by her anecdotal relationship to the world, as well as by referentiality, music and new technologies. She’s applied this approach to her solo exhibition, INVALID, at Never Apart, to her music projects and to her numerous artistic collaborations, exhibited in major cultural institutions across Montreal. Her installation project, called DATA EYES: Plier des sites internet (Folding websites), is a study on the phenomenon of the times, derived from the post-internet and post-photographic condition. By projecting websites on origami affixed to a wall, and then capturing them through photography, Marilou creates an offline Internet place.
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Media/digital artsDayna
Dayna McLeod is a Montreal-based performance and video artist whose work includes themes of feminism, queer identity, and sexuality. Her performances often use humour and capitalize on exploiting the body’s social and material conditions. Her work has been presented at OFFTA in Montreal and in many festivals and venues around the world. She has a Ph.D. from The Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture at Concordia University. In the summer of 2019, she started recording herself sleeping, which made her realize the frequency and intensity of her sleep disturbances. Her project, Covid Sleep, is a virtual video installation that consists of night-vision surveillance footage of her and her girlfriend sleeping over the course of the 60-day residency. She will edit together her various sleep disturbances into a 30-minute digital video installation.
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Dayna
McLeod
Dayna McLeod is a Montreal-based performance and video artist whose work includes themes of feminism, queer identity, and sexuality. Her performances often use humour and capitalize on exploiting the body’s social and material conditions. Her work has been presented at OFFTA in Montreal and in many festivals and venues around the world. She has a Ph.D. from The Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture at Concordia University. In the summer of 2019, she started recording herself sleeping, which made her realize the frequency and intensity of her sleep disturbances. Her project, Covid Sleep, is a virtual video installation that consists of night-vision surveillance footage of her and her girlfriend sleeping over the course of the 60-day residency. She will edit together her various sleep disturbances into a 30-minute digital video installation.
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Visual artsNaghmeh
A multidisciplinary artist specializing in drawing, painting and sculpture, Naghmeh Sharifi, originally from Iran, has lived and worked in Montreal since 2009. Presented around the world and in many major Montreal institutions, her work is based on a profound interest in the psychology of the body, as a place of memory and a shell for our presence in the world, in all its fragility. A reflection on memory and disappearance, Naghmeh Shafiri's project explores by actively erasing aspects of the image, an inverted relationship to the creative process. It consists of painting on wooden panels and then erasing certain parts in order to reveal the final image.
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Naghmeh
Sharifi
A multidisciplinary artist specializing in drawing, painting and sculpture, Naghmeh Sharifi, originally from Iran, has lived and worked in Montreal since 2009. Presented around the world and in many major Montreal institutions, her work is based on a profound interest in the psychology of the body, as a place of memory and a shell for our presence in the world, in all its fragility. A reflection on memory and disappearance, Naghmeh Shafiri's project explores by actively erasing aspects of the image, an inverted relationship to the creative process. It consists of painting on wooden panels and then erasing certain parts in order to reveal the final image.
Visit the studio
Visual artsConnor
Connor Willumsen is a Canadian cartoonist and visual artist whose work has garnered various awards and honors, including a fellowship at The Center for Cartoon Studies. He was recently featured in the Best American Comics and Kramers Ergot anthologies. His first widely published book, Anti-Gone, was a finalist for an LA Times Book Prize, a Doug Wright Award, and an Ignatz Award. It was also recently adapted into a live mixed-reality theatrical performance that featured at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. As part of Parallel Lines, Connor Willumsen’s project consists of live portrait sessions over video chat with other home-ridden individuals around the world. His drawings are made simply and directly, allowing him to only draw what he can see on screen.
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Connor
Willumsen
Connor Willumsen is a Canadian cartoonist and visual artist whose work has garnered various awards and honors, including a fellowship at The Center for Cartoon Studies. He was recently featured in the Best American Comics and Kramers Ergot anthologies. His first widely published book, Anti-Gone, was a finalist for an LA Times Book Prize, a Doug Wright Award, and an Ignatz Award. It was also recently adapted into a live mixed-reality theatrical performance that featured at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. As part of Parallel Lines, Connor Willumsen’s project consists of live portrait sessions over video chat with other home-ridden individuals around the world. His drawings are made simply and directly, allowing him to only draw what he can see on screen.
Visit the studio
MusicJustin
Justin Wright is a cellist and composer who strives to push the boundaries of new classical and experimental indie music. A prolific collaborator in countless Montreal-based musical projects, Justin has established himself as one of the city’s most innovative and versatile cellists, performing internationally in classical concert halls and underground loft venues alike. A former molecular biology researcher, Justin takes an exploratory and experimental approach to creating music, integrating composition, production, and recording into a single process, and fostering an environment where mistakes and spontaneity are embraced as integral tools for creation. With Drone Garden, Justin Wright creates a virtual reality music performance in which 25 simulated orchestral musicians are spread out evenly in a large room. This forms a sonic landscape that can be explored online by multiple people simultaneously.
Visit the studio
Justin
Wright
Justin Wright is a cellist and composer who strives to push the boundaries of new classical and experimental indie music. A prolific collaborator in countless Montreal-based musical projects, Justin has established himself as one of the city’s most innovative and versatile cellists, performing internationally in classical concert halls and underground loft venues alike. A former molecular biology researcher, Justin takes an exploratory and experimental approach to creating music, integrating composition, production, and recording into a single process, and fostering an environment where mistakes and spontaneity are embraced as integral tools for creation. With Drone Garden, Justin Wright creates a virtual reality music performance in which 25 simulated orchestral musicians are spread out evenly in a large room. This forms a sonic landscape that can be explored online by multiple people simultaneously.
Visit the studio
