BERLIN, GERMANY.- As part of the des poesiefestival berlin from 24 June to 22 July 2007, the Literaturwerkstatt Berlin will be presenting the “AVATAR. Digital Poetry” exhibition at Tesla at Podewils Palais. Pianos that turn random letters into notes and loudspeakers that translate images in sound choreography. At the AVATAR exhibition from 24 June to 22 July, the Literaturwerkstatt Berlin will present digital poetry from Quebec, including installations from Jocelyn Robert, Christof Migone, Émile Morin and Sabica Senez. The exhibition at Tesla at Podewils Palais is taking place as part of the poesiefesitval berlin, which this year is focusing on poetry from Canada and Quebec. Pierre-André Arcand will be performing at the opening event.

Digital poetry works on the one hand with hybrid texts involving word, image and sound, on the other with the symbolic language of computers and the Internet. The “AVATAR. Digital Poetry” exhibition will present poetry against the background of the digitalisation of artistic production and communication.

The “Leçon de Piano” (“Piano Lesson”) installation by Jocelyn Robert and Émile Morin fuses language and musical melody together. The French translation of Elfriede Jelinek’s novel “The Piano Teacher” will be projected onto a piano keyboard that will play notes corresponding to the letters in an aural interpretation of Jelinek’s work.

In a special project for this exhibition, Sabica Senez is working on a new multi-channel sound installation – in a telephone box. Using telephone receivers and loudspeakers, the visitor will dial into a vocal performance.

For the “L’origine des espèces” (“The origin of species”) installation, Jocelyn Robert has developed a choreographic work involving 48 loudspeakers. The digitalised image of a mechanical typewriter is converted into audio signals so the “languages” lying behind this image are rendered audible.

The AVATAR artistic label was founded by Jocelyn Robert and is known in media art for amusing language and communication experimentation. It is the group’s first visit to Berlin.

The eighth poesiefestival berlin will take place from 23 June to 1 July 2007. The “AVATAR. Digital Poetry” exhibition is taking place in co-operation with Tesla at Podewils Palais.

The poet and artist Pierre-André Arcand (*1942) works in the areas of performance, poetry, experimental music, sound art and new technologies. He has already carried out early experimentation with the “Macchina Ricordi”, a modified recording machine that makes work with voice and spoken language possible. His works combine visual poetry, text, sound poetry, performance, installations, objects and publications. Since the end of the 90s, he has been working with media art and with real-time audio and video technology. His recent performances have also incorporated video images, video noise and visual and concrete poetry. Arcand lives in Saint-Roch-de-Richelieu and Quebec.

Christof Migone is and artist and author. The combination of language and music forms the creative basis of his works, which cover language, the human body, voice, psychopathology, performance and video. His work “Writing Aloud: The Sonics of Language” has been released as a book and a CD (2001) and reflects his search for possible forms of expression. He has released, among other works, 6 solo CDs and has been the curator for a number of sound and radio art events. He lives in Montreal and teaches at the Concordia University.

Émile Morin has been, among other things, artistic director for Avatar. He is a media, sound and video artist, whose work involves the integration of text into a digital context, whereby the texts mostly serve as the catalyst for a visual-acoustic chain reaction. Among his works are the "La salle des Noeuds" installation (2000) and the sound installation "Roméo et Juliette" (1998).

Jocelyn Robert is a composer, media artist and author. For more than 20 years, he has been working with sound art installations, compositions, interactive art, performances, video and literature. He has produced some 15 solo CDs and has contributed to more than 20 others, all of which have been released on the Ohm Éditions label. His works have already been presented in the USA, Mexico, Poland, Austria, Germany, France and Canada. He has received numerous prizes for his work, including first prize at the 2002 transmediale video art festival in Berlin. In 1993, he founded AVATAR, an arts centre for sound an electronic art in Quebec and of which he is the director. He teaches at the École des arts visuels et médiatiques at the University of Quebec in Montreal. Jocelyn Robert lives in Quebec und Montreal.

Sabica Senez (*1970) is an author and artist. Her work is based on taking known texts and poems, which she deconstructs using text-language software and places in new contexts. Her interest lies in the complex tones of poetry and language. In 2004, she published the novel Nulle part ailleurs.