Skip to navigation Skip to content

Centre

PHI Event Centre Noire COVER
Photo: Image from Colored

Colored: The Unknown Life of Claudette Colvin

  • Augmented Reality
  • Limited Places
  • Immersion
  • Society
  • Theatre
  • Storytelling
Look up to address on google map

PHI Centre Galerie 2
407 Saint-Pierre St
Montreal, Quebec, H2Y 2M3

Monday and Tuesday:
Closed

Wednesday, Thursday & Sunday:
11 AM to 8:20 PM
(Last entry at 7:40 PM)

Friday & Saturday:
11 AM to 9 PM
(Last entry at 8:20 PM)

Duration: 40 minutes

13 years old +

Weekdays:
13 to 30 years old: $28
31 years old +: $30

Weekends:
13 to 30 years old: $30
31 years old +: $32

Price including service fees, excluding taxes

Reawaken the forgotten history.

About the experience


Claudette Colvin made it all possible, but she is the one who has been forgotten. Colored is a powerful story that uses the HoloLens 2, an augmented reality headset, to bring her story to life. A pioneer and icon of the civil rights movement in the United States, Claudette Colvin takes us with her to segregated Alabama.

Colored: The Unknown Life of Claudette Colvin is directed by Stéphane Foenkinos and Pierre-Alain Giraud, based on the work by Tania de Montaigne, Black, the Unknown Life of Claudette Colvin. Immersive installation produced by Novaya in partnership with the Centre Pompidou, co-produced with Flash Forward Entertainment (Taiwan).

Watch the trailer

PHI Event Centre Noire IMG1
Photo: Image from Colored

Colored: The Unknown Life of Claudette Colvin

We're in Montgomery, Alabama, in the heart of the segregated southern United States, on the 2:30 PM bus, March 2, 1955. Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old Black teenager, refuses to give up her seat to a White passenger. Despite threats, she remains seated. After being thrown in jail, she decides to sue the city and plead not guilty. No one ever dared to do such a thing at the time. And yet, no one remembers her name.

Colored: The Unknown Life of Claudette Colvin is an immersive experience adapted from a biographical essay, written by Tania de Montaigne, that traces the story of Claudette Colvin and her journey from struggle to abandonment.

When, 9 months later, Rosa Parks repeated the same act, everything changed. With the support of a young pastor who had recently arrived in Montgomery, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks became a hero, the spark that launched the civil rights movement. History was in the making. Claudette Colvin made it all possible, but she is the one who has been forgotten. She still lives in the United States today, and is 83 years old.

Colored allows the audience to enter a setting that will soon be haunted by the ghosts of 1950s Alabama. Thanks to augmented reality, which like no other technology allows our present to meet the past, Claudette's story can become our story, entering our memories as a 'lived' moment in our own experience where we can each become witnesses to this heroic act.

In a set specially designed for the experience, iconic scenes from Claudette Colvin's life during her fight for civil rights are replayed before your very eyes. Whether you're alone or accompanied, you'll be able to join your peers in a collective experience.

In the media

"Simply stunning and moving. Breathtaking!"

—Malika Bauwens (translated by PHI)
Beaux Arts Magazine

"Colored is a shock, with powerful civic virtues. [...] An essential exhibition..."

—Valérie Lehoux (translated by PHI)
Télérama

"Impressive sensory experience."

—Mohamed Berkani (translated by PHI)
France Info

"A poignant experience to live now..."

—Cécile D. (translated by PHI)
Sortir à Paris

"An unprecedented and powerful way of conveying history."

—Eva Bester (translated by PHI)
Totémic - France Inter

Created and produced by

  • Novaya is a company specializing in the creation of artistic immersive experiences using augmented reality. Their strength lies in the fact that they bring together artists, engineers and film producers, enabling them to write projects, visually create real and virtual worlds, and manufacture all the innovative technologies needed to bring them to life.

  • Presented by


  • With the support of






PHI Event Centre Noire IMG3
Photo: Tania de Montaigne

FAQ

Credits

More Events at PHI

IEX Space Explorers INFINI COVER

Off-Site Location

Space Explorers: THE INFINITE

May 3 January 7

The immersive experience Space Explorers: THE INFINITE, presented in the Old Port, is back in Montreal featuring new captivating content captured in space

Experience Immersion
PHI Event Centre Myriade Chromatique Credit sylvain dumais COVER

Free

Centre

Chromatic Myriad

August 15 July 31

The PHI Centre showcases a light installation with evolving content, adapting to the seasons and exhibitions

Installation Technology
PHI Event PDA Pioneer Numerique COVER

Free

Off-Site Location

New Media Pioneers

September 21 December 30

Presented at Place des Arts, New Media Pioneers celebrates the work of Michel Lemieux of 4D ART and Édouard Lock

Exhibition Immersion
Rt rehearsal studio thumb

Free

Foundation

Rirkrit Tiravanija: JOUEZ/PLAY

November 3 March 10

The PHI Foundation is pleased to present JOUEZ/PLAY, a solo exhibition by artist Rirkrit Tiravanija

Exhibition Contemporary Art
BNCR pep thumb

Free

Foundation

The Bureau of Noncompetitive Research

November 3 March 10

The Bureau of Noncompetitive Research is a public engagement project by the collective of the same name. Taking place in the PHI Foundation’s Education Room

Installation Contemporary Art
465 G 6 Rirkrit thumb

Free

Foundation

Guided Tours with the Education Team for All

December 7, January 18, February 8 and March 7

The PHI Foundation invites you to participate in a guided tour led by our team of educators in order to discover the exhibition JOUEZ/PLAY by artist Rirkrit Tiravanija.

Event Contemporary Art