Noel Apitta: “FORTRESS OF BLOOM”

The audiovisual artist SCARLETMOTIFF (Noel Apitta) lives and works in Kampala, Uganda. Over the past three months, he has been one of the artists supported by the Swiss residency program of the Pro Helvetia Foundation. Immersed at L’Abri – Geneva, navigating both local and international cultural scenes, and through his travels, Noel has evolved through encounters, exploring diverse horizons.

Letting go of plans to embrace exploration

Weekly projects punctuate the artist’s research. His project Generative Dreams, an audiovisual journal, serves as a digital mirror to the analog expression of his states of consciousness since June 2020. This series enables him to deepen his expertise with tools essential to his practice—TouchDesigner and Ableton—while allowing space for improvisation. In Geneva to embrace the unknown, Noel follows routine wanderings between L’Abri – Carouge and L’Abri – Madeleine. The sounds he records and visuals he captures become markers of his explorations. This active contemplation, now a ritual, enriches his immersive research. Over the course of his three-month residency, the artist works to dissolve sound into the materiality of light, sculpting space to facilitate acts of immersion.

Typologies of immersion

Upon his arrival, Noel attended La Bâtie festival, a cornerstone of Geneva’s cultural season. The contemporary dance performance Aux Lointains by Aurélien Dougé and the live audiovisual performance Full-On by Klara Lewis, Nik Colk Void, and Pedro Maia made a profound impression on him. He also participated in two major festivals: Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria, and the Mesh Festival in Basel. In his quest for discovery, Noel traveled across Europe by train, forging new connections and rekindling old ones. His sensory cartography expanded to include Lausanne, Zurich, Bern, Gruyères, Berlin, Amsterdam, Delft, Trondheim, Copenhagen, Rennes, Nantes, and Mâcon.

FORTRESS OF BLOOM : A galactic journey

Noel’s residency culminates in SCARLETMOTIFF, a voyage through an audiovisual installation that retraces his journey. Through key images and soundscapes gathered during his travels, he creates an homage to Switzerland’s vibrant visual culture. Inspired by the 80s and 90s science fiction aesthetic, the installation invites visitors to wander through a labyrinth of projections. These projections showcase posters and visuals collected throughout his time in Switzerland. At the center of the space, a large disco ball casts luminous reflections across a constellation of mirrors placed throughout the room. This interplay of light guides visitors, encouraging them to explore the installation both physically and sensorially.

By reinterpreting his journey, Noel offers a voyage that is both introspective and cosmic, where every visitor becomes a star orbiting within the universe of SCARLETMOTIFF. The work Fortress of bloom was showcased on November 22 and 23, 2024, during the digital arts exhibition RESPIRATION, organized by ABRACA at the Centre d’Art du Sanatorium in Bergesserin.