Martin Messier

Martin Messier is a composer, a performer and a video artist from Montréal, Canada.

Born in Montréal, Canada in 1979.

Hiscuriosity for graphic arts has brought him to explore the relationship between sound and image. It’s this same interest that inspires him to create audio performance, live electronics, installation, videomusic, music for dance and theatre.

His work has been broadcast in national and international festivals including Mutek (Canada), Mois Multi, Escales Improbables, IMEB (France), Videoholica (Bulgarie), Bang on a Can (NY) , NIME (Italie), 404 Festival (Taiwan), Isis Arts (UK), Digital Art Festival (Bulgarie), Cartes Flux Festival (Finland), Transmediale (Berlin) et Sonar (Barcelone, Chicago).

Based on strong aptitudes for rhythm, Martin’s esthetic can be defined as a complex, left field and happily strange sound amalgam, constantly playing with construction and deconstruction.

For more than 15 years, Martin Messier has created works in which sound meets images and objects. In the form of performances and installations – with a choreographic tone – , these works place the body front and centre.

After studying composition at l’Université de Montréal, Martin began an experimental sound practice that integrated video images. He quickly developed performative audiovisual apparatuses that brought everyday objects and the sound potential of their various materials to the stage. A number of collaborative projects were carried out over the years, notably with artists Nicolas Bernier, Caroline Laurin-Beaucage, Anne Thériault, and Jacques Poulin-Denis. Martin’s latest performance project, ASHES, marks his first collaboration with French artist Yro (Élie Blanchard).

Presented in some 50 counties, Martin Messier’s productions have received several prizes and nominations: a special mention at Prix Ars Electronica in 2010; listed for a Prix Opus in 2012; Best Experimental Short Film at the Lausanne Underground Film Festival in 2013; the Canada Council’s Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award in 2014; a special mention by the jury at the 2015 Japan Media Awards; and, in 2018, the World OMOSIROI Award in Japan.

Represented by Marc Langlois, Martin is also a member of Perte de Signal, an artists’ centre. In 2010, he established 14 lieux, a company dedicated to producing sound works for the stage, and has been its general and artistic director since then. He lives and works in Montreal.