No more evil

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Ahmed Drebika & Jorge Luis García González

This virtual reality installation offers a unique journey through Islamic eschatology, reinterpreting traditional narratives of the end times through a contemporary lens. At its centre is Israfil, one of the four archangels of Islam, whose trumpet signals the start of the apocalypse. The installation presents Israfil in a serene landscape, surrounded by baby goats. The installation incorporates references to religious symbolism, exploring themes of sacrifice and redemption by referencing the ways in which animals have been portrayed in both Islamic and Renaissance art.

The haunting sound of Israfil’s trumpet, created in collaboration with sound artist Jorge L. García, adds another layer of depth to the installation, evoking feelings of awe and anticipation. Drawing inspiration from the works of Hieronymus Bosch and Jan van Eyck, two artists known for their meticulous attention to detail and religious symbolism, the installation explores themes of apocalypse and rebirth, inviting viewers to contemplate the idea of an end to evil in this world and the promise of a new beginning in the next.

In a world where economic and environmental anxieties prevail, “No More Evil” invites us to reconsider the significance of religious myths and their potential to shape our understanding of the world. This installation offers a unique lens through which to view these issues, creating a sense of the sublime and the transcendent. It encourages viewers to reframe their fears and contemplate the possibility of a transformative future. By exploring the more challenging elements of these themes, we hope to prompt viewers to critically reflect on the role of spirituality and religion in shaping our perception of the world and inspire them to imagine new possibilities for the future.

Ahmed Drebika is a Libyan born Montreal based multi-disciplinary artist. His work explores the interplay between the tangible and intangible, the real and the virtual, and the material and the spiritual. By adapting the historical visual language of painting and photography into 3D-rendered pieces, he creates large-format photographs and video installations that challenge our perception of reality and invite us to question our relationship with the world around us. His work is informed by personal experiences and often by the current state of his home country of Libya, serving as a backdrop for the exploration of the impact of violence and hardship on the human psyche. Drebika’s pieces contain symbols of the struggles of his homeland, which are juxtaposed with the serene and otherworldly nature of his compositions, allowing the audience to contemplate the profound and transformative effects that these experiences can have on our sense of self and our relationship to the world. Through his art, Drebika invites us to consider the ways in which technology and history can serve as a tool for self-reflection and spiritual growth

Born in Mexico City, Jorge L. Garcia is an artist and researcher working in the domains of recording, sound design and composition. Investigating memory, duration, and environment, his research is occupied with exploring the furthest, yet integral properties of sound phenomena. He creates soundscapes aiming to address the immersive capacity innate to the sound experience as a means of expanding horizons in sound technology and mediation. Jorge is currently completing a Bachelor of Digital Music at the University of Montreal (CA)

News

CO/CREATE Immersive Exhibition

01/08/2024

On August 1st from 5pm to 9pm we invite you to discover the immersive experiences of this year's CO/CREATE artist residency. 01/08/2024 - 25/08/2024 Wednesday - Saturday from 1pm - 5pm by appointment. Click here to read more about the work and schedule a viewing.

Local Spin- Tati au Miel

19/07/2024

Save the date! Next Friday artist in residence Tati au Miel will be hosting a DJ workshop here at the studio! Experimental mixing methods to be explored!

CO/CREATE – Immersive Workshops @ SAT

31/05/2024

Last month CO/CREATE touched down at the Society of Arts and Technology for a four-part series of workshops on immersive audio-visual creation. Artist had the opportunity to experiment with their collaborative projects and learn about creating spatial audio and 360° content for the dome.

Sound Studio Memberships

02/04/2024

We are currently accepting applications for new sound studio members. Send us a DM on instagram or email contact@worldcreation.studio for more information.

Composite #38

20/03/2024

World Creation Studio had the opportunity to participate in Composite #38 to talk about the CO/CREATE residency!

INVISIBLE Festival – Brussels

23/03/2024

This past March, two former CO/CREATE residents (Ahmed Drebika & Melannie Jonas-Ng) flew to Brussel’s INVISIBLE Festival to showcase the immersive VR artwork they created during the last edition of the residency. Click here if you want to learn more about last year’s CO/CREATE projects!

Local Spin- Odile Myrtil

13/07/2024

Join us next Wednesday from 6-9pm for our DJ workshop Local Spin hosted this month by Odile Myrtil!

Deep Listening Study Circle

13/02/2024

Exploring listening through different forms of movement, sound, and dreaming, Ludwig Berger will lead a study group on Tuesday evenings for practicing Deep Listening after the composer Pauline Oliveros. The workshop is now at full capacity, so stay tuned for other workshops and events to come!

CO/CREATE

15.04.23 – 13.05.23

CO/CREATE is an immersive exhibition bringing together the collaborative projects of nine emerging artists based in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal: Bianca Shonee Arroyo-Kreimes, Bayleigh, Taoyu Chen, Ahmed Drebika, Jules Galbraith, Jorge Luis García González, Isaiah Iseghohi (Dayhills), Melannie Jonas-Ng, Vivian Li.

These artists explore the notion of worldbuilding through six immersive worlds that resulted from a group residency at World Creation Studio (WCS). Using virtual reality and spatialized audio, artists worked together to create distinct immersive experiences that challenge our perceptions of digital creation and reflect on what worldbuilding means in the present moment—here and now. But that here and now takes its social and political dimension, its relevance, from the present ecological moment, marked by hard evidence of climate change that coexists with a frantic desire to explore virtual and extra-planetary worlds (while large corporations co-opt terms like metaverse, billionaires invest in space exploration and consumers are invited to migrate their lives to computer-generated worlds or infinitely scroll through the void of social media). Engaging and reflecting on worldbuilding in this context seems a necessary endeavour, one that is not devoid of irony.

Yet, in the case of WCS, this process of imagining and creating synthetic worlds reflects the studio’s core interest in organizing a community art space that centres sharing resources (equipment, space, software) as well as ideas and knowledge. In short, worldbuilding to WCS is about a collective exploration into community building in the milieu of art, science, and technology in Montreal. As such, they created a unique residency model: the call invited applications from artists interested in potential collaboration through the creation of augmented, virtual and sound-based experiences; the residency consisted of intensive periods of production and learning, for example through workshops facilitated by WCS team members—a network of artists, designers and technologists with experience rooted in digital collaboration. With four months of access to WCS’ facilities, artists-in-residence participated in both formal and informal feedback sessions, getting to know each other, bouncing ideas back and forth, and familiarising themselves with each project; this process naturally led to skill-sharing and to the opportunity to work together as co-authors. This collaborative residency format had a direct impact on the conceptual and formal aspects of the six VR worlds that make up this show. Throughout the development of CO/CREATE, artists collectively imagined ways to untangle worldbuilding from the veils of colonialism and consumerism—facing the reality that in constructing a world, one must consider the histories and narratives that came before it.

Through personal interpretations and narratives of worldbuilding, the CO/CREATE exhibition invites visitors to dive into six speculative spaces. Audiences will find a diversity of life, environments, and stories that reflect the diversity of the artists themselves—their backgrounds, interests and unique perspectives on the world they live in and the worlds they envision. These VR projects invite us to reflect on interconnectedness, kinship, relationships beyond anthropocentric perspectives and the antagonism that emerges as we interact with others and navigate differences of class, race, sexual orientations, and faith. Some of the characters, soundscapes, and imaginaries presented within the exhibition connect to identities and ideas that do not yet have a space in this world, and therefore remind us of the political and technological constructs that define our experiences of the here, now, and beyond.

Exhibition text written by Erandy Vergara

No More Evil