ARTONOV Lab
Located in the heart of the Sainte-Catherine district in 2026, ARTONOV Lab is conceived as a laboratory space where artistic forms intersect, shift and reinvent themselves in real time.
Inspired by research and experimental venues such as the Intermediatheque in Tokyo and The Centre for the Less Good Idea in Johannesburg, ARTONOV Lab does not define itself as a traditional exhibition space, but rather as a testing ground: a place where works are created in the moment, where disciplines engage in dialogue without hierarchy, and where the unfinished becomes a form in its own right.
This year, ARTONOV Lab continues its logic of displacement and reinvention by moving into a new site: the former Sainte-Catherine power station, reactivated as a space for interdisciplinary creation.
Here, the boundaries between performance, installation, music and scenic gesture dissolve in favour of a form of thinking in motion. The audience is not merely a spectator, but a witness to a living process that is sometimes fragile and often unpredictable.
Within this singular context, ARTONOV Lab forms the experimental heart of the festival: a space for testing, assembling and transforming artistic forms — and for embracing the idea that art can be as much a process as it is a result.
Events taking place here
Echoing the exhibition Les Dieux de la Maison, this programme offers a portrait of everyday domestic music-making from the Renaissance to the Baroque period.
From the beginning of the sixteenth century, the viola da gamba became the instrument par excellence of musical education in Europe. In England, many households owned a chest of viols — a cabinet containing viols of different sizes for ensemble playing.
Oto no Mii-dera (The Sound of Mii-dera) is a multidisciplinary performing arts project that brings together leading artists from a wide range of disciplines, including waka (classical Japanese poetry), shōmyō (Buddhist chant), Noh theatre, shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute), clarinet, and contemporary music.
Born out of necessity, Japanese boro textiles speak of wear, impermanence, and the preservation of everyday life. Having become collectors’ objects and carriers of cultural memory, they form part of a global artistic history, from Informal Art and Arte Povera to Abstract Expressionism. Robert Rauschenberg once declared: “I want to incorporate into my canvas any object from life.”
The chirping of birds and the glow of the first stars draw us into a captivating nightscape, where voices carrying the rich vibrations of the Baroque repertoire begin to emerge. A shimmering surface evokes the expanse of a lake, while an intriguing hut stands nearby. We find ourselves in the heart of a forest. Two playful creatures—half-human, half-animal—guide us on this nocturnal journey, soon joined by ethereal beings with crystal-clear voices.
