The Digital Village is back from August 20 to September 3, 2026, transforming the Quartier des spectacles into a vast free tour of digital installations. Co-presented by MUTEK and “The Digital Village has become a reference and convergence point for digital creation. By bringing together professionals from around the world, it makes Montreal a place of convergence where different creative scenes interact, while offering the public a living portrait of the richness and diversity of this thriving ecosystem. », underlines Mikaël Frascadore, executive producer of Village Numérique.
The route reinvents itself with every step Every evening, from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m., the Quartier des spectacles becomes a nighttime playground where everyone is free to trace their own path, at their own pace: interactive and contemplative works, video and kinetic projections, immersive installations, sound and light creations and hologram devices. An accessible, eclectic and fun program that invites you to discover how image, sound, data and technology are reshaping our relationship with public space. In order to support visitors in this discovery, the Digital Village offers a mediation component including guided tours, introductory workshops and meetings with artists. These activities offer keys to understanding the creative approaches and technologies that shape the works presented. These first works are only an overview of the 2026 programming: other installations, mediation activities and professional meetings will be announced soon and during the inauguration evening on August 20, presented by Télé-Québec.
After Midnight CA/QC Badang! CA/QC Brigita Gedgaudas CA Daily every day CA/QC Ghazal Majidi IR/QC Invisilab CA/QC Myriam Bleau CA/QC Ottomata CA/QCQuinn Hopkins CA/QC RGBMTL CA/QC
New this year: presented in collaboration with MUTEK at the Esplanade Tranquille on August 28 and 29, the RGBMTL collective—an NPO that celebrates artists active on the Tezos blockchain—brings together 25 digital artists from around the world. Each person presents 5 to 10 one-minute works screened, thus forming an annual collective exhibition.
The public, the driving force behind the worksHere, it is the gestures, movements and interactions of the public that bring the works to life. In the Society for Arts and Technology [SAT] gallery, Be Vardų, Be Kojų: Traces by Brigita Gedgaudas, co-presented by InterAccess, uses photogrammetry and a Kinect sensor to transform audience movements into projected figures in real time. Same participatory logic on the side of SOLSTICE by Ottomata and Escale Musicale by Daily tous les jours, where the public generates light, music and movement, the public space becoming, for the duration of an evening, a real field of collective experimentation.
Making the invisible visibleOther works on the tour give form to what usually escapes the gaze: buried memories, territorial stories, contemporary realities. In the windows of the Parterre, Twenty Twenty-Five by Ghazal Majidi, in co-production with DigiBC, captures the reflection of the public to integrate it into a living archive of photographs of airstrikes, a way of questioning our relationship to images of conflict. The Heart of Sciences at UQAM hosts Perspectives, where Après Minuit focuses on anamorphosis to offer another look at the image, digital identity and the discreet forms of surveillance that surround us.
Traces and imprintsThe journey also questions what humans and technologies leave behind them. Co-presented by ImagineNATIVE with the support of DigiBC, Sacred Tags by Noodin Studio by Quinn Hopkins transforms an urban wall into a visual portal to ancient memories, putting graffiti and cave painting in dialogue around the same gesture, separated by eras: that of leaving a trace, of making the material speak, of inscribing a presence. For her part, Myriam Bleau explores with Unfold the materiality of screens through a luminous structure made of LED ribbon which folds on itself, revealing a moving architecture whose appearance changes depending on the angle from which it is viewed. When leaving the course, the public leaves with more than a memory: another look at technologies, at the spaces they inhabit and at the traces they leave there.
A lever of influence for digital creativity The professional aspect of the Digital Village continues to grow this year, bringing together artists, studios, institutions, researchers, technology professionals, digital experts and curators. “Three years after its creation, the Digital Village is no longer an emerging project. This unique and unifying event has become an essential showcase for our studios, a driver of international collaborations and an affirmation of Quebec’s leading role on the world stage in terms of digital creativity. Integrated into the activities of the Forum and the Market, which will see particularly rich editions this year, it is a real lever of development and influence for companies and creators. » says Jeanne Dompierre, general director of XN Québec.
MUTEKForum will be held from August 26 to 28 under the theme “Symbiotic Frequencies”, exploring the idea of harmonizing creative practices through research, creation and interdisciplinary collaboration and fostering exchanges between audiovisual performance, electronic music, artificial intelligence (AI), extended realities (XR), ecology, media arts and design. At the same time, the MUTEK Market offers a space dedicated to industry meetings, professional networking and the creation of an ecosystem between artists, with more than 100 presenters and delegates from here and elsewhere, thus promoting the emergence of new collaborations. By bringing together audiences, artists and professionals, the Digital Village confirms its place as a platform for discovery, exchange and influence for digital creation.
MUTEK and XN Québec would like to thank their partners who play a considerable role in maintaining and developing their activities and who particularly supported the creation of the Digital Village.
The Government of Quebec, the Society for the Development of Cultural Enterprises of Quebec, the Secretariat for the Metropolitan Region of the Government of Quebec, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the Ministère du Tourisme du Québec, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Department of Canadian Heritage, the City of Montreal, Tourisme Montréal, the Société des arts technologies, the Quartier des Spectacles Partnership, Place des Arts, DigiBC, InterAccess, ArtEngine, ImagineNATIVE, RGBMTL, Via Rail, Orléans Express, Amigo Express, Télé-Québec, romeo’s gin, Brasserie Dieu du Ciel! and Zamalek.