Noire is an immersive installation that transports its audience to Montgomery, Alabama, in the 1950s, to re-enact the act of resistance by Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old African-American girl who refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white passenger and chose to stand up for herself.

Through augmented reality, objects and archival materials merge to bring to life this sensory journey, based on Tania de Montaigne’s book of the same title. The work sheds light on an often-overlooked act of courage in the struggle for civil rights.

Program Notes

"Thanks to augmented reality, we are immersed in Claudette Colvin's everyday life. We are on the bus beside her, in the courtroom with her before the judge who sentenced her. It is a way of experiencing segregation and racism from within and, undoubtedly, of feeling the injustice more deeply."

— Muriel Maalouf, RFI

"...It pays exceptional tribute to Claudette Colvin, the first installation of its kind in the world. The installation, which merges digital arts and the performing arts, is remarkable."

— Artscape

"A sensory, original, and unsettling experience: archives and videos are projected onto a screen while we physically move among the holographic specters of figures from the past. A new and powerful way of conveying history."    

— Eva Bester