Vertical format in the spotlight in Toronto: The “La Verticale” exhibition opens a breach

Sanjorge Guillaume
Dec 12, 2024
1 min read

Updated: Sep 30

This is a first: in Toronto, the exhibition La Verticale , initiated by Le Labo in partnership with the Cinéfranco festival, gives central space to the 9:16 format. Six French-speaking artists present works designed for a tall screen, breaking with the horizontal conventions of traditional cinema.

From November 1 to 9, 2024, the public discovered videos projected in studio 277 , in the premises of the Labo, at 401 Richmond Street. This initiative, led by Dyana Ouvrard (general and artistic director of the Labo) and Mathilde Rousseau , helped to promote a form of expression that was still marginal: vertical video.

Another way of seeing, another way of telling

Conceived as a media arts component of the Cinéfranco festival, the exhibition moves away from the classic big screen to explore margins and mobile formats. Each work, from Writer's Block to Flânerie éphémère , questions intimacy, memory, and disappearance, making the vertical format a fertile constraint.

In Canada, conceptual and artistic research is emerging around the vertical format, well beyond simply adapting it to mobile uses.