Benoit Boires ::

Paléficat tells the story of the uncertain future of a piece of land. The certainty of a landscape transformation, the new face of which almost no-one yet knows. Probably the disappearance of the last traces of the market garden belt in the Toulouse metropolitan area. Paléficat is an electronic composition and field recording recounting the disappearance of the landscape in a still wild area of a large urban conurbation. Paléficat is a musical and sound narrative of the universal issue of artificialisation and soil and our loss of connection with living things.

This sound art creation is part of a wider observatory project for the Paléficat district, supported as part of a LABEX research project (LABoratoire d’Excellence, operation 7) and led by the LISST research unit (Toulouse 2 University), bringing together researchers (geographers, town planners, sociologists, etc.) and artists. In this observatory and observation work, the view is constructed, produced and restored by/with/in images and sounds. The Paléficat sound art creation is more specifically associated with the production of a research film (“Une disparition”, directed by Olivier Bories) on the attachment/tear away of an old inhabitant from the landscape of his neighbourhood.

Paléficat was presented as an installation at the “Sound of anthropocene” exhibition at the De Cologne Agricola Foundation during the summer of 2024 , presented as an 8.1 concert at the APNEES soundscape meetings in Grenoble, presented as an 8.1 concert at the acoustic ecology meetings in Athens from 7 to 11 November 2024 and was a finalist in the performance category at the Arte Laguna Prize at the Arsenale in Venice on 16 November 2024. For the Arte Laguna Prize, Paléficat was presented as an 8.1 live performance at the Arsenale in Venice. It has just been finalist for the Sound of the Year Awards 2024 in the category « Composed with sound ».

C. Lavender

Details coming soon…

About the Artists

Benoit Bories :: I see myself as both a craftsman and a sound artist. I have produced narrative sound pieces for various French and international public radio stations, whilst also broadcasting regularly on the network of French community radio stations. My work in sound creation began with audio documentaries. Over time, it has gradually evolved towards more hybrid productions combining forms drawn from sound art, electroacoustic/electronic composition and field recording, whilst retaining a desire to explore the universality of certain societal issues. I teach sound design and musical composition at Phonurgia Nova, on the CREADOC Master’s programme in documentary creation in Angoulême, at the Lussas Documentary School, and at the Montpellier School of Fine Arts; I also lead workshops at several international sound art festivals and audiovisual production organisations.

Since 2016, I have mainly been creating sound works for live performance, installations and hybrid live performances. I have collaborated with several festivals and cultural venues on my performances and regularly take part in artist residencies abroad (Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes, Radiophrenia in Glasgow, Avatar in Quebec City, Couvent des Jacobins in Toulouse, Hearsay Audio Festival in Ireland, Harvestworks in New York, RMIT and Bogong Centre for Sound Culture in Melbourne, Spatial Sound Institute Budapest, Pixelache Festival Helsinki, Acéphalo Festival in Valparaíso). My works have won several international awards and honours (New York Radio Awards, Premios Ondas in Barcelona, Prix Europa in Berlin, Grand Prix Nova in Romania, International Documentary Awards in Los Angeles).