Tuesday, May 24, 2022 — The day after the closing night of the 38th edition of the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, which took place from Monday to Sunday, May 16–22, 2022, the team is proud to announce that all of its goals have been achieved.
The circuit of sound art installations in public places, a reference
This year was the 13th edition of our circuit of sound art installations in public places, and it attracted more than 12,000 visitors. It was open between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. Monday to Sunday, May 16–22. The circuit consisted of nine works, all world premieres and designed specifically for the places where they were exhibited in downtown Victoriaville. Despite weather that ranged from a violent storm to a cloudless sky, the public came and the organization recorded a record number of registrations for guided tours from schools, community groups and businesses. In total, 40 groups took advantage of our guided tours adapted to all ages and levels of interest, in French or in English.
More good news for FIMAV is the fact that many people from the visual and sound art worlds have testified to the importance of our circuit of sound art installations in public places. Curator Érick d’Orion accompanied a group of professionals from Montréal’s Phi Centre, as well as a curator from the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, and these people all highlighted the relevance of our bold project, calling it a reference in the field, both artistically and in terms of cultural production and mediation.
International music was back in the concert halls
“At last!” was the general feeling of the public, journalists and artists at the 38th FIMAV, thanks to the return of international music in the concert halls. Prior to the event, the organization expected a drop of approximately 25% in concert ticket sales compared to pre-pandemic days, and that’s what happened. The concerts were attended by close to 3,000 people in total. They came from all over Quebec, other Canadian provinces, several areas of the USA, and even Belgium! The concert line-up was of very high quality, included unusual discoveries, and clearly won over the public.
A large family gathering
The 38th FIMAV 2022 was a complete edition once again, with all activities and services back on track: concert programming, film programming, sound art installations, visual arts, cultural mediation, bar service, promotional material stands, cafeteria, etc. Public, journalists and special guests from abroad were finally back in Victoriaville, and the large family that is the FIMAV team was able to come together again and catch up. It is with a warm feeling that the team says: “See you next year!”
Thursday, May 19, 2022 – For reasons related to complex family situations, the war in Ukraine, the unrelenting pandemic, and visa issues, the FIMAV organization, DAKH DAUGHTERS’s touring team and the Ukrainian artists are announcing that unfortunately the concert scheduled for the 38th FIMAV 2022 cannot take place. All three parties apologize to the audience who were eagerly awaiting this performance.
DAKH DAUGHTERS will be replaced at the last minute by WILLIAM PARKER’s “Mayan Space Station” project featuring AVA MENDOZA and FRANCISCO MELA! Tickets for the DAKH DAUGHTERS concert can be used for the replacement concert tonight.
Our team will be contacting all ticket holders for the DAKH DAUGHTERS concert individually after the festival in order to initiate the refund process. Please monitor your inbox and voicemail.
Wednesday, May 18, 2022 – For highly complex reasons, the DAKH DAUGHTERS concert cannot be presented on Thursday, May 19, 2022, at 10 p.m. at Colisée Desjardins. We are trying to move this concert to Friday, May 20, at 3 p.m. in the same performance hall.
A confirmation of this schedule change will be announced in the next few hours.
All ticket holders for this concert will be contacted individually by our team, either by email or telephone. Please monitor your inbox and voicemail.
Thursday, April 21, 2022 – For the past two years, we at the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville have faced our share of new challenges. And now, for the first time ever, we have an unexpected change to the concert line-up one month before the event. Thus, we regretfully announce that Fátima Miranda must cancel her visit to Victoriaville due to COVID-related reasons.
To replace such a great singer, the artistic direction of the 38th FIMAV has turned to Japanese vocalist Koichi Makigami. Makigami is renowned as a master of the oldest instrument in the world and recognized worldwide for his unique voice, his confounding extended techniques and his contagious sense of humour. To hear him vocalize—especially in free improvisation mode—is to embark on a singular journey beyond the glottis! He will be performing a solo acoustic set at St-Christophe d’Arthabaska Church at 1 p.m. on Saturday, May 21, 2022. For more information about this concert, visit the the concert page.
Everyone who bought individual tickets for Fátima Miranda’s concert will be contacted personally by FIMAV’s ticket office.
Wednesday, March 30, 2022 – The team behind the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville (FIMAV) is unveiling today the detailed schedule of the 38th edition. Also, the ticket office will be fully open starting today. Venue, time, ticket price, project description: all the information about every concert and film program is now available.
The 38th FIMAV 2022 provides festival goers with several extraordinary experiences, and this year marks the long-awaited return of international artists. The circuit of sound art installations in public spaces will be open to the public free of charge from Monday the 16th to Sunday the 22nd of May, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Concerts will take place from Thursday the 19th to Sunday the 22nd of May and will be presented at Colisée Desjardins, Carré 150 and St-Christophe d’Arthabaska Church. Two film programs will be screened on Saturday the 21st and Sunday the 22nd of May, a.m., and a visual arts exhibition will be presented in the large hall set up at the Colisée.
Tickets for all concerts and film programs are available now, with several money-saving options offered: Passeport Festival (40% off, includes all concerts and films + two VICTO CDs of your choice), Passeport Aventure (20% off, includes 6 or more different concerts and film programs), Passeport Découverte (15% off, includes 3 to 5 different concerts and film programs), and individual tickets for each event. Reservations can be made online or by phone at 819-752-7912.
The experience the FIMAV team acquired in the past two years of pandemic will keep them on high alert. Thanks to the rigour and professionalism of its staff, the 38th FIMAV 2022 will undoubtedly be a safe event that will leave an imprint on hearts and minds in search of living artistic experiences!
Click on the links for the 38th FIMAV 2022 schedule, questions about tickets, program notes and tourist information.
Wednesday, March 9, 2022 – Today, the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville (FIMAV) team is unveiling all the concerts and the two experimental film programs of the 38th FIMAV 2022. Also, the Festival Passport goes on presale now at a special price.
Nearly one hundred artists from fifteen different countries (Quebec, Canada, Egypt, Lebanon, Ukraine, United States, France, Iran, Colombia, Austria, Spain, Sweden, Japan, Mexico, Philippines, and Germany) will be travelling to Victoriaville to perform on the Colisée Desjardins, Carré 150, and St-Christophe-d’Arthabaska Church stages. There will be World Premieres, North American Premieres, Canadian Premieres, and Quebec Premieres. Here they are: NADAH EL SHAZLY, DAKH DAUGHTERS, DITHER, QUASAR, NO HAY BANDA / IDA TONINATO / NAVID NAVAB, SEAN NOONAN'S PAVEES DANCE «Tan Man’s Hat», RENÉ LUSSIER «Au diable vert», MOPCUT, FÁTIMA MIRANDA «Living Room Room», MATS GUSTAFSSON / DAVID GRUBBS / ROB MAZUREK «The Underflow», MAZEN KERBAJ / SHARIF SEHNAOUI / RAED YASSIN «A Trio», FRANCK VIGROUX «Forêt», MARY HALVORSON «Amaryllis & Belladonna», BLOODMIST, SIMON MARTIN «Musique d’art (2022)», PANGEA DE FUTURA, FIRE MUSIC «The Story of Free Jazz», COLIN STETSON / MATS GUSTAFSSON, GORDON GRDINA «The Marrow & Square Peg».
In addition to all these concerts, the 38th FIMAV will include two programs of experimental films. Bill Morrison’s feature-length film «The Great Flood» (music by Bill Frisell) will be screened in the first program. The second program, entitled ELECTRIC SHADOWS, will include the following shorts: STEVEN WOLOSHEN & ALEXANDRA GRIMANIS «Rhythm In The Backstroke» (music by Fred Frith), MICHAELA GRILL «under the microscope» (music by Sophie Trudeau), JULIE TREMBLE «Explosion no 3», SABRINA RATTÉ «House of Skin» (music by Roger Tellier-Craig), JOOST REKVELD «#57», PETER TSCHERKASSKY «Train Again».
Festival Passport Presale
The Festival Passport is going on presale today. This pass grants access to all concerts, both programs of experimental films, and includes two Disques VICTO releases of your choice for the special price of $275, $100 off the regular price of the Festival Passport. Reservations can be made online or by phone at 819-752-7912. This special discount is available only through Wednesday, March 23, 2022.
The detailed schedule and individual tickets will be available from March 30.
Thursday, March 3, 2022 – The team at the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville (FIMAV) is revealing two concerts that will be part of the 38th FIMAV 2022 edition as a surprise for their audience. All other concerts will be announced on March 9 as scheduled.
DAKH DAUGHTERS (Ukraine)
With time, FIMAV developed a special talent for finding provocative artists who cross over geographical and musical barriers, yet whose music remains accessible to all. DAKH DAUGHTERS, an all-female group from Ukraine, present a colourful show where several genres are combined: traditional Ukrainian music, jazz and “Belle Époque” French chanson meet in an approach that can only be described as Musique Actuelle. FIMAV first invited this group of singers-musicians-performers for the 36th edition in 2020, which was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, the FIMAV team hasn’t given up, and they finally intend to welcome them to Victoriaville for the 38th FIMAV 2022!
COLIN STETSON / MATS GUSTAFSSON (United States, Sweden)
COLIN STETSON (United States) and MATS GUSTAFSSON (Sweden) were invited to perform in Victoriaville as part of the 36th FIMAV 2020, but as with DAKH DAUGHTERS, it was ultimately a missed opportunity. In the spring of 2022, the 38th FIMAV audience will finally have the chance to attend the first concert on Quebec soil of these two giants of the saxophone, who will be sharing the stage to combine their diametrically opposed—but oh so complementary—approaches!
All other concerts to be presented at 38th FIMAV 2022 will be announced next Wednesday, March 9. That same day the Festival Passport will go on presale. This passport grants access to all concerts and short film programs. The detailed schedule and individual tickets will be made available later in March.
Wednesday, February 16, 2022 – The team of the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville (FIMAV) is unveiling today the programming for the circuit of sound art installations in public spaces and the visual arts exhibition of its 38th edition.
Sound Art Installations in Public Spaces
The sound art installations circuit is free of charge and open from Monday May 16 to Sunday May 22, 2022, between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. It will feature nine works displayed in as many locations in the heart of downtown Victoriaville. All nine sound art installations were created specifically for FIMAV and are presented as World Premieres. Érick d’Orion, Sound Art Installations and Visual Arts Curator, points out that the works making up the 13th edition of FIMAV’s circuit of sound art installations in public spaces are articulated around two main themes: a sensibility to the elements of nature, especially the wind, and the place technology holds in our lives. He adds: “In short, an awareness that can be poetic, beautiful, natural, intriguing, funny, human. Deeply human. And isn’t that what artistic creation gives us access to?”
Two sound art installations are exhibited indoors: « L’étang de vibrations (2022, Victoriaville) » by MARIE-DOUCE ST-JACQUES at the Charles-Édouard-Mailhot Library, and « Souvenirs ébroués » by PATRICK BERGERON at Carré 150’s Centre d’art Jacques-et-Michel-Auger. Four works can be found at Place Sainte-Victoire: « De face » by JOËL LAVOIE, « Saule fragile » by CAROLINE GAGNÉ, « Températures » by ANNE-F JACQUES, and « Dyschronie » by LÉA BOUDREAU and ÉTIENNE LEGAST. In addition to this already extensive program, there will be two sound art installations by PASCALE LEBLANC LAVIGNE, « Les fours à micro-ondes sont-ils bannis en Russie? » and « Les belles tuiles à plafond », on rue de la Gare in collaboration with Centre Atoll art actuel, as well as « Le songe d’artisan » by FORTNER ANDERSON, GENEVIÈVE LETARTE, JAMES SCHIDLOWSKY and ALEXANDRE ST-ONGE set up in a display window of the music store Gérald Musique.
This project is made possible thanks to several partners: the City of Victoriaville, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Tourisme Québec, the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec, Canadian Heritage, the Canada Council for the Arts, Le Devoir, La Nouvelle Union, Télévision communautaire des Bois-Francs, Caisse Desjardins, Atoll art actuel, and Centre d’art Jacques-et-Michel-Auger.
Visual Arts Exhibition
JÉRÉMIE ST-PIERRE is the Québécois artist invited to exhibit paintings in the large concert hall set up inside the Colisée Desjardins. The exhibition, entitled « Qu’est-ce qui se trame? », consists of works that question the means used by humans to exercise power over nature and politics. It can be perused at every concert presented in this hall from Thursday 19 to Sunday 22 of May 2022.
The line-up of concerts and experimental short films for the 38th FIMAV 2022 will be announced in March.
Monday, January 1st, 2022 - All of us at Productions Plateforme wish you a Happy New Year! May 2022 be full of hope, light, and music. Solidarity with the artists and the cultural, food and tourism workers. And a gigantic thank you to health care workers. Here’s hoping to see you in Victoriaville, May 16-22, for the 38th FIMAV.
Wednesday, December 15, 2021 - We are thrilled to unveil the new image graphic designer Isabelle Beaumier came up with for FIMAV’s upcoming 38th edition, May 16-22, 2022! She says that "the uneven, unique shapes, the textures, vibrations and wild colours of this new design embody what FIMAV represents" for her.
Thursday, October 14, 2021 - We are celebrating the beginning of Les Disques VICTO label's 35th anniversary with the official launch of the album « Printemps 2021 » (VICTO cd 134) by René Lussier, Érick d'Orion, Robbie Kuster and Martin Tétreault recorded at the 37th FIMAV in orange zone! Order a copy by phone (1-819-752-7912) or by email.
The very first unveiling about the 38th FIMAV (May 16-22, 2022) will be in December 2021. Just before the holidays, the next Festival's new image will be unveiled!