Brice Ammar-Khodja

[Re]capture is an immersive art–science installation. It is composed of filtering biomaterials such as abacá and bioplastics, as well as living organisms including strawberry plants and mosses, which are recognized for their bioindicator properties. The piece was created as part of the FRQ-SC Research-Creation Support for New Faculty project “Dynamic Soft Membranes” (dir. Alice Jarry) and involved six student-researchers.

[Re]capture was presented at EISODE Gallery (Montreal, May 2024, curator: Ariane Plante) and Centre Culturel Canadien (Paris, 2025). Developed in collaboration with the City of Montreal’s Environment Service (Air Quality Division), the work explores the materialization of air pollution in Montreal and issues surrounding access to a healthy urban environment.

In this project, low-tech, solar-powered data capture devices are placed in urban space to record air quality (CO₂, volatile organic compounds, fine particles, etc.) as well as images of their immediate surroundings. This data is transmitted into the gallery space, where it modulates fluctuations of wind, light, and projected images within an air filtration system. Over time, atmospheric pollution is captured by the biomaterials and living organisms. This heightened visibility emphasizes the temporal and spatial dimensions of air.