Malvina Festival — First Edition
Saturday, August 22 and Sunday, August 23, 2026 | 1 pm to 5 pm
309 chemin de Malvina, Saint-Malo (Estrie)
Free admission
In its inaugural edition, Festival Malvina brings together artists, researchers, and immersive technology specialists for two days of creation, exchange, and reflection at the heart of the Malvina territory. Contemporary art, artificial intelligence, ecology, and heritage converge in a warm and welcoming atmosphere, open to all.
The Festival is part of the research-creation project Symbioses of Intelligences, which transforms the Malvina territory into a living laboratory throughout the summer of 2026.
Program
Saturday, August 22
Unveiling of Le Cheval de Malvina
Presentation of the life-size sculpture created by Royden Mills for the trail Malvina in the Old Days, followed by a meet-the-artist conversation. Created in part with artificial intelligence tools, the work opens an unprecedented dialogue between the agricultural memory of the site and contemporary technologies.
Collective Creation Workshop
Participatory workshop led by visual artist Sean Caulfield.
Each day: guided tours of all trails, virtual reality experiences (Wild Intelligences and MESSIS), MESSIS film gallery and podcasts, refreshments.
Sunday, August 23
Presentation of Sean Caulfield’s New Works
A look at the new pieces developed during his residency at ccdMalvina, followed by a meet-the-artist conversation.
Lecture by Hela Zahar
Generative AI and Environmental Visual Culture: Toward Responsible Practices
Hela Zahar, professor of digital cultures, Université de l’Ontario français.
Roundtable — Art, Artificial Intelligence, Environment, and Territory
Moderated by Isabelle Lemelin, anthropologist and assistant professor, Saint Paul University (Ottawa).
With the participation of:
Marek Blottière — Société des arts technologiques (SAT)
Sean Caulfield — visual artist, University of Alberta
Thom Gossage — composer and musician
Royden Mills — interdisciplinary artist, University of Alberta
Karen Vanderborght — digital artist
Isabelle Van Grimde — choreographer, Van Grimde Corps Secrets
Hela Zahar — Université de l’Ontario français
Artists and Researchers
Royden Mills
Royden Mills is an artist and contract academic at the Department of Art and Design, University of Alberta. His practice has unfolded through numerous large-scale commissions and installations presented across Canada and internationally — including at Grounds for Sculpture (USA), Terwillegar Park (Edmonton), Odette Sculpture Park (Windsor), and the first International Symposium for Public Art in Bhubaneswar, India. A member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts since 2017, he develops monumental sculpture centred on physical presence, territory, and the dialogue between natural materials and human-made forms. He has collaborated with Isabelle Van Grimde and Sean Caulfield for many years. At ccdMalvina, he is developing Le Cheval de Malvina, a life-size sculpture created in dialogue with the agricultural memory of the site and artificial intelligence tools.
Sean Caulfield
Sean Caulfield is a visual artist and professor in the Department of Art and Design at the University of Alberta. His prints, drawings, installations, and artist books have been shown in numerous exhibitions across Canada, the United States, Europe, and Japan. His work is held in several public and private collections, including at Harvard University, the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, and the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas. Elected to the Arts and Letters division of the Royal Society of Canada, he has collaborated with Van Grimde Corps Secrets and ccdMalvina for several years.
Karen Vanderborght
Karen Vanderborght (alias imagefatale) is a digital dada artist, technologist, and experience designer with 30 years of media innovation. She subverts emerging technologies and AI to question our connected humanity through phygital play and cyberfeminist narratives. Co-founder of studio KrakXR and the RAARAlab collective, her hybrid practice at the intersection of art and research has been recognized with numerous awards and grants. Her work has travelled from Canada to South Korea. She is represented by Argos (Brussels) and the Floating Point Gallery (Toronto).
Isabelle Van Grimde
Isabelle Van Grimde is a choreographer, artist-researcher, curator, founder, and artistic director of Van Grimde Corps Secrets. For over thirty years, she has developed a transdisciplinary practice that brings contemporary dance into dialogue with music, the visual arts, science, digital technologies, and artificial intelligence. Her work interrogates perceptions of the body, its transformations and becoming, notably through works such as Le corps en question(s), Eve 2050, Messis, Transes, and, more recently, Wild Intelligences.
Thom Gossage
Thom Gossage is a composer, drummer, and percussionist active in improvised and contemporary music. Founder of the ensemble Other Voices, he develops a musical approach grounded in structured improvisation, collaboration, and dialogue between performers. His career has been marked by deep involvement in contemporary dance, particularly with Van Grimde Corps Secrets, with whom he has collaborated for many years as composer, musical director, performer, and artistic advisor. He is currently working on the sound installation for Wild Intelligences and has composed music for several of the company’s works, including Eve 2050 and Messis.
Hela Zahar
Hela Zahar is a professor of digital cultures at the Université de l’Ontario français. She holds a doctorate in urban studies from INRS (Montréal) and a doctorate in cinema from the University of Tunis and Université Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris. She is a research member of the Francophone AI and Digital Chair and the Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Sustainable Development. She leads the research pole and the Digital Cultures Medialab at UOF. Her work focuses on digital visual cultures, ecological imaginaries, transformations in media communication, and visibility politics in the age of artificial intelligence.
Marek Blottière
Marek Blottière holds a master’s degree in cultural and digital studies from the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS). During his studies, he conducted research on the Canadian media ecosystem and AI cultural policy as part of the Shaping AI project. Since 2023, he has been a project manager and trainer with the Innovation team at the Société des arts technologiques (SAT), where he is involved in research projects on collective immersion, interactivity, and sound spatialization.
Isabelle Lemelin
Isabelle Lemelin is an anthropologist and assistant professor in the Faculty of Theology at Saint Paul University (Ottawa). Her research focuses on symbolic figures, violence, collective memory, and their cultural representations. She is interested in the links between founding narratives, identity, and transmission — a sensibility she brings to her practice as a moderator in interdisciplinary dialogue. At Festival Malvina, she moderates the roundtable bringing together artists and researchers around the relationships between art, artificial intelligence, environment, and territory.
Practical Information
Free admission — Open to all
Saturday, August 22 and Sunday, August 23, 2026 | 1 pm to 5 pm
309 chemin de Malvina, Saint-Malo, Quebec
Near Coaticook, in the Eastern Townships
Visit Malvina — directions and parking
Partners and Sponsors
Festival Malvina is made possible through the support of our partners and sponsors.