We posed the same question to 10 creators from diverse backgrounds: How do you envision the world in 25 years? How will we engage with nature and technology? We then invited them to encapsulate these futuristic visions within small mystery boxes. In the public space, 6 enigmatic boxes play a secret tale on loop. 6 parallel worlds await—each ready to entice your imagination and dazzle your senses.
SPIRALE
Everything is a matter of perspective. This box disrupts the viewer’s sense of space, inviting a shift in perception.
It unravels the thread of human evolution, eventually collapsing into the emptiness of technology.
Credits:
Conception and creation: Mylène Leboeuf Gagné and Martin Gagnon
Music: Gabriel Gagné Gaudreault
Martin Gagnon has been designing sets and puppets since 2009. An actor and cofounder of La Tortue Noire, he contributes to many of the company’s productions as both puppeteer and designer.
Scenographer and puppeteer Mylène Leboeuf Gagné explores the object in motion, shaping her practice around mobility and the relationship between material and manipulation. Fascinated by movement, mechanics and the pursuit of fluidity, she creates expressive, living forms with a wide physical range.
HAIKU
Will the earth one day become so dry that no vegetation can take root? Will our children stop seeing birds in flight? Through this box, created using techniques drawn from photography and animated film, the viewer is immersed in a dystopian vision of the city of the future. The haunting beauty of the landscape stands in quiet contrast to the vision it carries.
Credits:
Conception and creation: Sara Moisan and Patrick Simard
Music: Gabriel Gagné Gaudreault
Fabrication assistance: Marc-André Perrier
Sara Moisan has been a puppeteer and actor for over 20 years. She is cofounder of Théâtre de La Tortue Noire, as well as a writer, director and designer of both costumes and puppets.
Patrick Simard has worked as an actor and puppeteer since 2006. He is also a talented graphic designer and photographer.
IKARUS
A winged man, unmoored from the Earth
Silicon dreams; the machine-man, with wings woven from data, flies without moving forward.
Armoured sky; there is no more sun, no more stars. Enchanted by screens, he forgets the sound of his own voice.
Viral fall; the network devours him, his echo floats through the cloud, untouched by freedom.
Forgotten lesson; a modern-day Icarus, he does not fear the fall, for he no longer sees the abyss before him.
ÌKARUS or the Eternal Fall, is an allegory that draws a parallel between the myth of Icarus and artificial intelligence (AI). It reflects the dangers of unchecked ambition and overconfidence in the face of technological power. Like Icarus, who defied the limits of his time in his longing to fly, the pursuit of technological advancement often pushes forward without fully considering the ethical, social, or practical consequences. This project explores those outcomes through a character confronted by the consequences of his irreverent ambition.
Credits:
Conception and creation: Miguel Ángel Gutiérrez (Luna Morena)
Music: Zian Gutiérrez ¨Zian Ka’an¨ (Luna Morena)
A theatre artist originally from Mexico and now rooted in Québec, Miguel Angel Gutiérrez brings with him a rich background in directing and puppet design. He is the artistic director of the company Luna Morena and of Festín de los Muñecos, where his work continues to reflect a deep connection to storytelling through image and movement. https://titereslunamorena.com/#compania
CODEX CORNELIUS
Troy Hourie imagines life in the year 2050, drawing inspiration from Leonardo da Vinci’s renowned Codices, a manuscript of nearly 13,000 pages filled with notes and drawings capturing every facet of Renaissance thought and daily life: studies for artworks, designs for elegant buildings and fantastical machines. He also draws from the Codex Seraphinianus, a mysterious contemporary work by an Italian artist that reimagines our world as a vast fusion of living species. At the heart of Troy’s exploration lies a question: Will nature reclaim the world constructed by humans, or will the two find a way to coexist more fluidly? Within his box, two possible futures unfold.
Disappearance and Discontent– A world shaped by a double existence, where individuals are immersed in technology, including systems of traceability that ultimately lead to apocalyptic events. In the aftermath, nature reclaims what is hers, taking new forms reshaped by the wild. Solitude and Serenity– A vision of the future where humanity weaves nature into the world it builds with technology. In this imagined space, technology becomes more attuned to the individual, revealed in the reflection of eyes drifting through the void.
Credits:
Conception and creation: Troy Hourie Musical excerpt: Monumenta Industrial, Ales Brezina, https://alesbrezina.cz/
User interface designer: Phone Interactivity by Emily Sousana and Andrew Scriver, https://www.potatocakesdigital.ca/
A Métis Canadian-American artist, Troy Hourie is a performance designer, media installation artist and internationally recognized puppeteer with over 25 years of experience. He has created scenography for more than 350 productions across theatre and opera in the United States, Canada and abroad. He is an Associate Professor at the University of Guelph. https://www.troyhourie.com/
M’IA
Artist Paolo Almario began by feeding a text-based AI (ChatGPT) with elements drawn from his own practice: his core themes, reflections on exile, identity, survival and speculative futures. The goal was to allow the system to absorb this sensibility and generate prompts that resonated with his artistic universe. These prompts were then used to create videos with another AI tool (Sora), which specializes in generating moving images from written descriptions. The project is part of a broader exploration of the relationship between human and algorithmic creation, in which the AI becomes both an extension of the artist’s process and a mirror to it.
The work reflects on the complex bond between humans and technology—one of fascination but also of dependence and submission.
The title M’IA is the result of a linguistic and conceptual play that merges the idea of possession with artificial intelligence, which forms the heart of the project. Phonetically, M’IA echoes the Spanish word mía, meaning “mine” or “my own” in English. This choice directly references the artist’s Spanish-speaking roots and suggests a personal, intimate link between viewer and box. Each viewer experiences something unique and fleeting—something that feels like their own, even though it is generated by an autonomous entity.
M’IA is also a deliberate fusion of the Spanish mía and the acronym AI (artificial intelligence), highlighting the central role of AI as a creative agent in the work. The title reinforces the poetic dimension of the piece: a work that belongs to everyone and no one, an intimate theatre generated and animated by an autonomous machine that enters into dialogue with the human gaze, offering an experience as brief as it is deeply personal.
Credits:
Conception and creation: Paolo Almario
A Colombian artist based in Saguenay, Paolo Almario uses digital technologies in his work to capture, analyse, encode, process and transform fragments of reality into a wide range of artistic forms. He is particularly drawn to the design of machines driven by programmed, systematic movement. https://paoloalmario.com/
REFLEXIONS
Through the manipulation of mirrors, the viewer’s gaze is multiplied and landscapes are transformed—reflected into infinity. A solitary figure stands within a kaleidoscopic world, hinting at the virtual beyond.
Credits:
Conception and creation: Dany Lefrançois and Chantale Boulianne
Music: Gabriel Gagné Gaudreault
Dany Lefrançois has developed his artistic path through collaborations with several companies as a puppeteer and director in a wide range of theatrical productions. He is cofounder and co–artistic director of Théâtre de La Tortue Noire and also serves as artistic director of the Festival international des arts de la marionnette à Saguenay (FIAMS).
Chantale Boulianne is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice extends across animated film, theatre, visual arts and experimental music. She has contributed to numerous interdisciplinary productions as a creator, designer and performer.
