Louis-Olivier Desmarais

An audiovisual listening experience, Jujube Cortex revisits the exuberance and naivety of youth through the eyes of adulthood.

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The experience is built around a spatialized musical work by Louis-Olivier Desmarais, bringing the artist of today into dialogue with his 12-year-old self: a suburban preteen with an insatiable thirst for orange soda and shimmering experiences.

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The musical landscape unfolds as a colourful journey infused with youthful euphoria, conjuring images of cupcakes topped with fluorescent frosting and sprinkled with popping candy. Chiptune synthesizers, sounds from now-obsolete technologies, and sonic archives from the past come together to create a soundscape drawn straight from the final years of the previous millennium.

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The lighting, designed by Daniel Freder and distributed throughout the space across eight custom-built plinths and a laser, envelops listeners in ultra-saturated multicoloured hues—at times oscillating, at times stroboscopic.

Jujube Cortex is an invitation to reclaim the freshness of early youth’s gaze—without slipping into nostalgia.