Lisa Steele & Kim Tomczak explore urban architecture at Wharf

At Wharf, Centre d'art contemporain in Hérouville-Saint-Clair, from January 25 to March 13, 2010, Canadian artists Lisa Steele and Kim Tomczak present two new video series that shift their focus from the intimate and social body to architecture. In "City Studies: Becoming V…, Becoming B…, Becoming T…," they create fixed low-angle shots of buildings in Vancouver, Berlin, and Toronto, with direct sound and an intrusive movement. The comparative analysis highlights the chaotic collage of old and new in North American cities versus Berlin's controlled homogeneity. Linguistic incursions—philosophy for Berlin, urbanism for Toronto, economy for Vancouver—disrupt contemplation and create humorous mental images. "Speak City" centers on street signs across Toronto's 140 autonomous neighborhoods, using dissolves and cuts to form a visual and sonic poem. "Speech Free, Make Love not War, May 68" juxtaposes poetic images (misty park, snail, fleur-de-lis) with militant slogans, demanding slow decoding against today's image immediacy.