Mixed media artist Misé Johns is gearing up to enthrall audiences at the Montreal Fringe Festival with ‘Guerrier,’ an ambitious interactive show presented in partnership with Ethos Cultura, this immersive spectacle transcends the traditional barriers between artist and audience.
Johns, who is half Kenyan and Canadian, says he incorporates his culture and heritage into his art and Guerrier is no exception. Although it is his first time creating and holding an interactive show he believes all his previous experiences as a musician and working in different creative fields have set him up to execute this.
“There are so many aspects to this show. It’s like an interactive multimedia experience; there’s live performance and audience interaction,” he explains to the CONTACT.
“I would say the backbone of the whole show is the animation, motion design, film and special effects.”
Guerrier is an interactive and immersive multimedia experience addressing personal actualization in the current and digital age through a combination of high-quality animation, video, music, collaborative changes and. Insight in an element of mystery takes the audience inward to ask a simple question. What are you capable of? This two-part exhibition carefully distinguishes between reality and fantasy to instill viewers with a palpable sense of mythology around their lives. As. the main character of this story. The viewer is called and inspired to realize the true nature and depth of their potential, its necessity, and its possible impact if used correctly.
Realizing this project has been in the works for Johns for the past few years. As he explains, it is centered around themes and aspects that are near and dear to his heart.
Having lost his mother at 13, he found himself with many questions that didn’t get answered.
“Our society could do a better job of speaking to individuals about how they should conduct themselves to be more fulfilled and reach their potential. The way things are now, at least where I’m from, we are a remnant of the industrial revolution. Well, we’re taught just to be workers and be good workers for the capitalist system. But as we see now, we’re going through a mental health crisis. So as things have evolved so much, I think we need an update and a different way to speak to people around this. And I know for myself. I feel greatly failed in this area.” He says.
“I think that the education system was very boring and there was no effort to meet us on our level kind of. You know, now as an adult, I feel very capable. I love to learn and I think it wouldn’t have been that hard to kind of encourage me to do so.
Still, I think it was kind of a society-wide conspiracy if you might say, where you on one-hand they’re saying go to school, but on the other hand if you look at pop culture and the things that are influencing people, they’re saying more, you know, drop out of school.
You know, it was rap music is, you know, be a gangster and you know sell drugs and this kind of thing. And so it’s kind of like this mixed messaging with so obviously contradictory and I thought why wouldn’t it? Why wouldn’t what is considered to be cool in our society be the thing that’s going to help us to feel better and reach higher levels of well-being in community with each other and so this is kind of the gap that I wanted to bridge with this project.”
As the countdown beginsto the Montreal Fringe Festival, all eyes are on Misé Johns ‘Guerrier.’ This innovative show promises to be an unforgettable journey, redefining audience expectations and setting new benchmarks in the world of interactive art.
Guerrier will be running from May 29th to June 8th at 3714 Av Du Parc.
