On May 28, 2026 at 7 pm

Seats are limited and admission is on a first-come, first-served basis. Please arrive a few minutes early.

The dv_vd series is an initiative by Vidéographe and Dazibao. The aim of this collaboration is to create a dialogue between the centre’s collection and the current video art scene. For this edition of dv_vd, carte blanche is offered to Frédéric Moffet to create an original program as part of the series. The curator presents a selection of works that explores desire, memory, identity, and the politics of representation.

The lights go down. Bodies settle into their seats. You look around the screening room. Someone sneaks in late, sits in the front row. The audience fades into silence. From the back, a beam of light cuts through the dark.

The looping sound of a moving train hypnotizes you. A spell is cast. You rehearse three scenarios in your head: deception, refusal, surrender. He looks at you. You slip into an empty compartment. You undress. In the morning, disoriented, you sneak out, leaving the bed unmade. 

Now you are at dinner with friends. Your partner sits by you. As you tear into a chicken thigh, a caged bird thrashes, sensing its own demise. Under the table, bodies brush discreetly. The evening is pleasant enough but you want to escape. Your partner climbs onto the back of your motorcycle. You race into the night, leaving him cold as ice. You shower together. The steam revives him. Your bodies blur, merge, morph into one.

Morning arrives. You are back on your motorcycle, circling the city, hunting for trouble. You enter an apartment crowded with naked men posing for the electric eye of a camera. You remove your helmet, your clothes, aching for release. It comes—again and again. Yet something is off. Pleasure doesn’t always please. A line of coke and a cigarette would have been just fine.

Back on the street. A war-torn city, elsewhere. You keep looking for trouble. Here, men are fully clothed, masked, and armed. Danger is tangible. You discover an old reel of film underneath the rubbles. From the scratches and dust on the celluloid, two women in party dresses emerge. Softly, they succumb to their longing. A passionate trespass arises and disappears just as quickly. Desire slips back into the archive, concealed for safety.

On the road again. A desolate highway in grainy black and white. Four friends in a car, chasing ecstasy. In a cheap motel room by the highway, you succumb to his attraction. He pulls off his shirt. Your bodies come together. The others join in. Soon doubt seeps in. Chemicals toy with your head. You feel abandoned, undesirable. No… this is not your scene. You leave. Later, during the ride back home, you’ll try to reclaim your desire. Always crashing in the same car.

Now you float above landscapes and bodies, the electric eye of a goddess. Again, three scenarios: a laughable hookup, a missed opportunity, a tale of love. Yes, love. Tender, unguarded, enduring. You see yourself on your motorcycle orbiting a polyamorous bacchanal. You feel weightless. Free. 

The lights in the room turn back up. Your eyes adjust. The latecomer in the front row stands, slips toward the back door. You tell your friends you need the restroom. You exit the screening room, never to return.

— Frédéric Moffet

Program — 60 min

Monique Moumblow, Sleeping Car (2000) — 5 min 30 s

Philippe Hamelin, Lèvres Bleues (2020) — 8 min 18 s

Marc Paradis, Deliver Us from Evil (1987) — 9 min 45 s

Chantal Partamian, آثار Traces (2023) — 8 min 45 s

Karl Lemieux, Passage (2007) — 15 min

Alexa-Jeanne Dubé, Scopique (2017) — 12 min 6 s

Frédéric Moffet is a media artist, educator, video editor, and cultural worker. He was born in Montreal but now lives in Chicago where he works as a Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His films explore the slippery territory between history, lived experience and fantasy.