Agence TOPO and NT2 announce Sortir de l'écran / Spoken Screen, a series of performances and conferences on hypermedia works with four artists from Chicago, Montpellier, Montréal and New York. As part of Sortir de l'écran / Spoken Screen, a series of performances and conferences on hypermedia works, Agence TOPO and NT2 present Annie Abrahams (Montpellier), a Net art pionneer. She will perform on Wednesday, March 26 at La Centrale and give a lecture on Thursday, March 27, 2008 at UQAM. The presence on the Internet, "a performance in the public space of solitude" Web-based artist, Annie Abrahams, is concerned with the possibilities of collaboration and relationships between the public and online communities. She questions interpersonal relationships in a world increasingly mediated by new media. According to Annie Abrahams, "…any Internet presence can be described as a performance in the public space of solitude." Her artistic approach interrogates the possibilities and limitations of communication in general but more specifically, on the Internet. Born in the Netherlands, Annie Abrahams has lived in France since 1987. Drawing from her doctorate in biology and degree in Fine Arts , her artistic practice incorporates video, installation and Web-based performances. Since 1996, Abrahams has developed an online project called Being Human / Human Being (bram.org) that has been presented internationally. Annie Abrahams will present a performance entitled Le chœur souhaitant / The Wish Choir and a video projection of ViolenceS, at La Centrale on March 26, 2008. The artist will invite visitors to read a series of wishes and desires that Abrahams has collected over the years through her website (www.bram.org/wishes/index.php). ____________________________________________________ SORTIR DE L'ÉCRAN / SPOKEN SCREEN http://www.sortirdelecran.ca Sortir de l'écran / Spoken Screen, is a joint initiative between Agence TOPO and Laboratoire NT2 featuring 4 new-media artists; Michelle Citron ( Chicago), Aya Karpinska (New York), (December) Yannick B. Gélinas (February) and Annie Abrahams (Montpellier). Each event in the 2007-2008 series includes an interactive presentation and live performance held at La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse, followed by a conference at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). PARTNERS Agence TOPO is an artist-run center dedicated to the production, dissemination and distribution of independant multimedia works. Since 1998, Agence TOPO has diverse collective web art projects with artists from Quebec and abroad, presented in various events and festivals. It also acts as a distributor by carrying an Electronic Showcase for the dissemination, promotion and distribution of artistic and experimental CD/DVD-ROMs and DVD-VIDEOs. The Showcase presents an international selection of over fifty titles. NT2: New technologies, new textualities. The Research Laboratory for Hypermedia Literature and Art is a space which facilitates the renewal of analytic theory in literary studies, film studies and art history. NT2 intends to develop tools and a research nomenclature specific to new art forms, as well as refine their parameters of classification and cataloging, thereby providing an infrastructure not only making them more accessible, but also ensuring their conservation. NT2 promotes the study, reading, writing and archiving of new textualities, hypermedia and cyberart. http://www.labo-nt2.org Information about this series is available at http://www.sortirdelecran.ca ____________________________________________________ Agence TOPO thanks the Canada Arts Council, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the Conseil des arts de Montréal, Emploi-Québec, the Société des arts technologiques which hosts TOPO's web site, the Laboratoire NT2 as well as the artist run center La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse. For this project, La Centrale would like to thank Agence TOPO and Laboratoire NT2 . La Centrale would also like to acknowledge the continual support of our artists, members, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the Canada Council for the Arts, Conseil des arts de Montréal, les Brasseurs GMT, Quincaillerie Azores and Susanne de L.-Harwood.