Between creation and exploration, and reflection and innovation

MUTEK unveils the in-venue programming for its 22nd edition, presented from Tuesday, August 24 to Sunday, August 29, which celebrates the many facets of Canadian electronic music and digital creativity through 28 eclectic performances. When the summer season winds down and the cultural season begins, the Festival will highlight local and national talents by welcoming nearly sixty artists from Québec, Alberta, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Saskatchewan. Festivalgoers will be able to reconnect with the singularity of MUTEK’s programming inside of Place des Arts’ Cinquième Salle and MTELUS.

The Forum, which takes place from August 24 to September 2, is also revealed with the announcement of the first four themes of its programming as well as the first 46 names of the speakers who will take part in this 7th edition, which will be streamed online from the creative hub Zú. This market for minds will bring together artists and companies involved in digital creation and electronic music in conversations that explore the latest artistic practices, while stimulating reflection on the ethical and political issues related to technology and the digital world.

The Play series continues its exploratory mandate at Place des Arts’ Cinquième Salle

Back for a second year in a row inside of Place des Arts’ Cinquième Salle, the Play series—the Festival’s experiential component—offers two double programs per evening from Tuesday, August 24 to Friday, August 27. These 16 performances, all world premieres, will highlight Montreal’s expertise and cutting-edge talent in digital art, audiovisual creation and electronic music. A total of 36 local contemporary artists will join the public in this space for experimentation that will provide a remarkable audiovisual experience. They will have the opportunity to share the culmination of a year of introspection and creative exploration, which will surely result in performances full of renewed imagination and striking offerings.

ALMA ^FR/QC+CA/QC Charbonneau/Amato ^CA/QC France Jobin & Markus Heckmann ^CA/QC+DE GOLPESAR ^IR/QC Ida Toninato & Pierre-Luc Lecours ^FR/QC+CA/QC Lucas Paris & Alexis Langevin-Tétrault ^FR/QC+CA/QC Mathieu Arsenault & Charles-André Coderre ^CA/QC Matthew Cardinal & Stephanie Kuse ^CA mesocosm ^CA/QC Montreal Life Support & Woulg ^UK/QC+CA/QC Myriam Bleau ^CA/QC Myriam Boucher & Kathy Hinde ^CA/QC+UK Nick Schofield ^CA/QC Priori & Jason Voltaire ^CA/QC Salomé Perli ^FR/QC Thisquietarmy & Philippe Léonard ^CA/QC

All programs are on sale today for $25 (taxes and fees included). A limited number of tickets are available due to capacity restrictions.

A discovery offer that allows you to enjoy three Play series programs, either alone or with someone, is also available at $60 per person (taxes and fees included), which includes a 20% discount.

Buy your Play Ticket

The Nocturne series reinvents its unifying experience at MTELUS

The Nocturne series features three programs of four shows presented at MTELUS from Friday, August 27 to Sunday, August 29. These 12 performances, most of which are world premieres, showcase the talents of about twenty artists. Reimagined as an electronic cabaret, Nocturne continues to focus on more rhythmic forms and will bring festivalgoers together in an immersive and convivial atmosphere.

Alex Mc Mahon ^CA/QC All is Well ^CA/QC Ciel ^CN/CA Desert Bloom ^CA/QC Guillaume Coutu-Dumont ^CA/QC — Les Empires Hildegard ^FR/QC+CA/QC JOYFULTALK ^CA Martin Messier ^CA/QC Phèdre ^CA Pheek/Iregui ^CA/QC+CO/QC Plumbing (Jason Voltaire & Stephen Ramsay) ^CA/QC Porto Porto ^CA/QC Yu Su ^CA

The three evenings are on sale today for $36.50, taxes and services fees included—of which $1.50 is an ecofee that supports Planetair’s reforestation project in Québec and helps offset MUTEK’s carbon footprint.

A passion offer that allows you to enjoy the three Nocturne series programs, either alone or with someone, is also available at $78 per person (taxes and fees included, of which $3 is an ecofee), which is a savings of $31.50.

Buy your Nocturne Ticket

We regret to announce that the duo Hildegard will unfortunately not be able to perform at MUTEK. Guillaume Coutu Dumont will be added to the Nocturne 3 program, Sunday August 29 at MTELUS.

XR Salon celebrates its 7th Edition

The 7th edition of the XR Salon will continue last year’s deep dive into the metaverse, in particular through discussions about augmented reality, thanks to the participation of the creators of the Montréal/Miami New Narratives Lab, organized by FilmGate Miami, MUTEK, the National Film Board of Canada and O Cinema.

This year’s XR Salon will also put into focus the circulation and distribution of XR works, examining the results of a recent study undertaken by Québec/Canada XR that was spearheaded by Sandra Rodriguez, as well as the accessibility of VR, thanks to a partnership with Montréal’s Society for Arts and Technology and their SATELLITE project, and the participation of Canadian artists and web-VR educators Nancy Lee and Kiran Bhumber.

Last but certainly not least, MUTEK is thrilled to host creator Sabrina Calvo—whose portfolio includes everything from poetry and novels to video games, XR and fashion—for an inspiring keynote on why we should free ourselves from the conventional limitations of “storytelling” and explore new ways of telling the stories that matter today.

Fereshteh Toosi ^IR/US — Florida International University Gwendal Creurer ^FR/QC — Society for Arts and Technology Kiran Bhumber ^CA Laurence Dolbec ^CA/QC — National Film Board of Canada Maude Thibodeau ^CA/QC — Dpt. Mélanie O'Bomsawin ^CA/QC Monica Lopez De Victoria ^US — Lopez De Victoria Studio LLC Nancy Lee ^CA Olivia Klawonn ^US Sabrina Calvo ^FR/QC Sandra Rodriguez ^CA/QC — MIT (HackingXR) Shonee Arroyo-Kreimes ^CR/QC Vivian Marthell ^US — O Cinema

Exploring Imaginaries of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a recurring theme at the Forum, with this year’s edition bringing together a group of international speakers to explore the diverse imaginaries of AI. This includes a keynote by Benjamin Bratton, author of the influential MIT-published book The Stack, whose upcoming publication The Revenge of the Real explores the future of politics and the role of AI in a post-pandemic world. Presented in collaboration with Ars Electronica’s Futurelab, a panel hosted by renowned AI music researcher Ali Nikrang will dive into the topic of cross-cultural approaches to collaborative composition between humans and machines. Additionally, a set of short presentations by various creators and experts will offer insights into the impact of this technology on the future of music, digital arts, and XR, including one by former MUTEK AI Art Lab advisor Nao Tokui on demystifying creativity in AI-driven music making, and another by Keychange cohort member Celine Garcia, exploring the concerns of copyright in the creative application of AI.

Ali Nikrang ^AT — Ars Electronica Futurelab Benjamin Bratton ^US — University of California San Diego Celine Garcia ^FR — Puppet Master Label & Publishing Nao Tokui ^JP — Qosmo Orit Halpern ^US/QC — Concordia University

New Frontiers in Digital Art and Sound

Each year, MUTEK aims to present some of the most innovative artists who are pushing the boundaries of digital and audiovisual creation, and who contribute to developing, diversifying, and interconnecting our local and international ecosystems of creators and professionals. In this context, MUTEK is proud to team up once again with the AMPLIFY Digital Arts Initiative, an ambitious international project led by the British Council that connects an active network of women-identified artists and practitioners across Latin America, Canada and the UK. MUTEK Forum will feature a series of presentations of the projects developed out of the AMPLIFY D.A.I Collaborations Fund, which will be hosted by Karine Charbonneau of Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s studio.

Alejandra Cárdenas (Ale Hop) ^PE/DE Analucia Roeder ^PE Andrea Ludovic ^VE Edy Fung (Quantum Foam) ^HK/UK+SE Erin Gee ^CA/QC Feli Cabrera López ^CO/AR Flor de Fuego (Florencia Maria Alonso) ^AR Frances Adair Mckenzie ^CA/QC Gabrielle Harnois-Blouin ^CA/QC Jenny Maritza Ramirez Osorio (Jennitza) ^AR Joaquina Salgado ^AR Libby Heaney ^UK Magdalena Molinari ^AR Mimi Allard ^CA/QCRobin Buckley (rkss) ^UK Sol Rezza ^AR Tatiana Heuman ^AR/DE Vicky Clarke ^UK x/o ^CA

A partnership with Hexagram, an interdisciplinary network spanning eight Québec-based universities and schools that is dedicated to research-creation practices that address the relationships between arts, cultures and technologies, will also be highlighted during MUTEK 2021. From among more than 200 members, 26 artist-researchers will present their most recent projects at the Forum, in the form of short video content, to showcase their practices, and their experimental and critical perspectives in connecting the artistic and scientific disciplines.

Music Matters

Music is always at the heart of MUTEK’s initiatives, and all of the aforementioned activities and themes remain highly relevant to the electronic musicians evolving in a fast-paced and continuously changing industry. The Forum will once again feature a more targeted track involving several of the artists participating in the Festival and addressing a wide range of music industry-related matters. This year, MUTEK shines a light on pressing ecological concerns with a series of events hosted by EarthPercent, a brand new environmental sustainability charity co-founded by Brian Eno, featuring guest speakers from Client Earth, A Greener Festival and Music Declares Emergency.

In parallel, the current cohort of the Keychange project—a recurrent partner of MUTEK—will join the Forum, including the participation of Ievgeniia Ivanova through a focused look at data-driven decision making and analysis, while a workshop on digital sovereignty for musicians will be offered by the online marketing expert Click & Mortar.

Soundworks, a newly launched sound meditation app, will host a panel of artists and academics discussing creative approaches to mindful sonic experiences, and Montréal-based startup BeatConnect will partner with local producers to show how they’ve made musical collaboration more accessible for creators

Claire O’Neill ^UK — A Greener Festival Ievgeniia Ivanova ^PL/UA — ARNOVA Isla Angus ^UK — Client Earth John Connell ^UK/DE+US — Soundworks Lewis Jamieson ^UK — Music Declares Emergency Love Ssega ^UK — EarthPercent Lukas Volz ^DE — Université de Cologne Olivier J. Bergeron ^CA/QC — Click & Mortar

Several more experts as well as new themes, like the intersection of fashion and creative technology or new monetization models such as NFTs will round out the Forum’s programming and will be confirmed in an announcement scheduled for the end of July.

The market participants (artists, creators, distributors, cultural organizations, and companies in digital creativity and electronic music) and activities, like interactive roundtables and networking opportunities, will also be unveiled in July.

In the meantime, three types of Passports are currently available for a limited time at a preferential rate.

Get your MUTEK Forum Passport

MUTEK would like to thank its partners, who play a key role in the maintenance and development of its activities, and have provided particular support towards the development of the Festival and the Forum.

The Government of Québec, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the ministère du Tourisme du Québec, the Secrétariat à la région métropolitaine du gouvernement du Québec, the ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts de Montréal, the City of Montréal, FACTOR and Canada's private radio broadcasters, the Department of Canadian Heritage, Musicaction, the British Council, the Consulat général de France à Québec, the Goethe-Institut, Tourisme Montréal, Red Bull, Soundworks, BeatConnect, Zú, Place des Arts, Akufen, Urbania, Folklore and Click & Mortar.