Public artwork for the medical library of the CHUM hospital in Montreal, Canada
Realized by The Society of Affective Archives (Fiona Annis & Véronique La Perrière M)
Context: Intégration des arts à l’architecture – Ministère de la Culture et des Communications
Project partners: Generique Design, Listo Films, Martin Schop, Maxime Pelletier-Huot, Points d’Impression Numérique, Tech3Lab
Media: 2 videos, 6 light boxes, 3 illuminated walls, artists’ book publication
Inauguration forthcoming, please note that the work will be accessible when the hospital reopens to the public
Photographic documentation: The Society of Affective Archives 
+ more information about the publication

Why send messages to the stars? Because they are ancient, because they persist, because we are made of the same matter. Because they are our ancestors, our origin and our future.

Involving the arts, science, research and public participation, the artwork consists of an archive of messages that are poetically and metaphorically sent to the stars and to the future.  The messages, collected from the hospital community, are transformed by means of a collaboration between art and neuroscience to generate astral images and ultimately, a collective artwork representing a collection of words, prayers, hopes and fears. Rooted in deep human experiences, the Ad Astra project gives voice to the range of emotions and the loop of life and death that the hospital context is witness to daily.

Video capsule of the Ad Astra project, 2021
Direction, camera and editing: Pierre Tremblay, Listo Films