POSSIBLES 01 (MTL 375TH)

PROVIDENCE

THEME 01  |  SOCIAL INEQUALITIES
ARTIST  |  GUILLAUME ADJUTOR PROVOST in conversation with Sarah Chouinard-Poirier, Angie Cheng, François Pisapia and Irène Fournaris

The Centre CLARK and LA SERRE — arts vivants are inviting the public to the presentation of Guillaume Adjutor Provost’s project as part of POSSIBLES and the 375th anniversary of Montreal.

In his response to a book by Thomas Piketty titled, Le capital au XXIe siècle (Capital in the Twenty-First Century), American philosopher Harry G. Frankfurt argues that economic inequality should not be the main focus of our concern if the latter is motivated by a kind of surreptitious moralism. Instead, a better approach would be to abandon the ideals of equality in favour of a collective consideration of the notion of “sufficiency”. According to Frankfurt, individuals should not be preoccupied with having just as much, but rather with having just enough. But how does one determine individual needs, especially when these are affected by a material insecurity linked to class, immigration, gender and age?

Many organizations fight against the living conditions imposed by economic precariousness. They become forces for transformation and invite us to trust in the mobilization of their agents. The project Providence will be presented at the Association des travailleurs grecs du Québec, an organization that aims to help Montreal’s Hellenic community by providing tools that allow them to self organize, to deal with problems experienced in their host communities, and to defend and claim their rights. By building on the history of the Association, this exhibition acts as an elliptical narrative on uncertainty, but also on objects of hope: desires, aspirations and needs.

The installation begins with a photographic montage that depicts a handshake between an individual and a statue of Émilie Gamelin; an extended hand as the symbol of a brighter tomorrow. The main room at the Association features figurative works by Paul Soulikias and Merlie Papadopoullos, as well as a collection of collaged, didactic panels describing the events of the Athens Polytechnic uprising in 1973, created by Irene Fournaris over the past 40 years. Elsewhere, an ethereal and roving video by François Pisapia takes us on a meandering path through non-capitalisable spaces. What does it mean to walk on the fringes of a private world, and a world possessed? An opening-night performance, co-produced with Sarah Chouinard-Poirier and Angie Cheng, takes as its starting point a series of writing workshops held with homeless women who frequent Herstreet, a Montreal non-profit organization. The resulting work is a lyrical expression of the needs and desires of these women to transform their everyday lives.

Through the close collaboration of Sarah Chouinard-Poirier, Angie Chen, François Pisapia and Irène Fournaris, Providence engages in the logic of the anecdote through the language of photography, video, performance, and the archive. As such, the most enigmatic works, in the true sense of the word enigma, have the power to be the most engaging.

Guillaume Adjutor Provost
Guillaume Adjutor Provost holds a Doctorate in the study and practice of the arts from Université du Québec à Montréal. His research focuses on the concept of curatorial art, namely the use of curatorial approaches as creative practice. Through an indeterminateness of forms, Guillaume Adjutor Provost’s production plumbs our unconscious expressions, the idea of usage and the construction of ideals. More specifically, he is interested in what lies on the periphery of history-making: counter-culture, personal archives, the vernacular and science-fiction. His past awards include grants from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the Canada Council for the Arts, the OJIQ and the Sodec. Guillaume Adjutor Provost’s work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions in Canada, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, and Switzerland. He has received the Jean-Claude Rochefort prize in contemporary art, as well as the Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Fellowship in Contemporary Art. Since the Fall of 2016, he has benefited from a studio at Darling Foundry, and was one of the finalists for the 2016 Pierre-Ayot prize.
www.guillaumeadjutorprovost.com/

Sarah Chouinard-Poirier
Sarah Chouinard-Poirier is a performance artist working closely with cultural and community-based initiatives in Montreal. She develops her performances through contextual actions, mixing presence, gesture, speech and object, to create an image that is as sensitive as it is radical, to create her own feminist and resistant mythology. Her recent work focuses on the body, spoken action, dreams, empathetic phenomena, utopias, power and systems of oppression. She is also interested in the re-appropriation of narratives by people and communities. Positioning her practice between theatre, writing and action art, Sarah Chouinard-Poirier’s work also extends into collective projects and interdisciplinary theatre. These projects seek to explore the concept of performativity and are based on contemporary or classical repertoire texts. She also coordinates Volte 21, an organisation she cofounded dedicated to multidisciplinary artistic creation.

Angie Cheng
Originally from Ottawa, Angie Cheng is a Montreal-based dance artist. After studying dance at Canterbury Arts High School, she went on to graduate from the Dance Department at Concordia University. Collaborative creation processes ground her ongoing research in performance, investigating the liminal space between creative process and performance event and between spectator and performer. The embodied and specific understandings that arise from these investigations shape her current questions and engagements both in her own work and with others. She has a history of creation with choreographers Tedd Robinson and Thierry Huard, David Pressault Danse, MAYDAY/Melanie Demers, Wants and Needs Danse/Sasha Kleinplatz, Lara Kramer Danse. She is currently working with Nathan Yaffe, Kate Nankervis and Ame Henderson. In 2017 she will begin a new solo project as well joining a new creation project with Dave St. Pierre.

François Pisapia
François Pisapia earned a BFA in Design from Concordia University, and currently lives in Frankfurt, Germany, where he is studying at the Städelschule, under the direction of Douglas Gordon. Pisapia’s practice is primarily based in video, and looks at how this medium acts as witness and as an instrument of reflection and decay. His work moves between paranoid reportage and ruined romance. 

ABOUT

POSSIBLES
POSSIBLES merges art and civic engagement in the perspective of sustainable community development. Once a month throughout the year 2017, POSSIBLES will present the works of 12 artists from various art disciplines in collaboration with 12 creative partnerships in 12 unusual Montreal venues.
The Objective: Provide a platform to up-and-coming artists by inviting them to create new POSSIBLES exploring 12 local issues that arose from discussions with the community.
The year 2017 will impart a manifesto and a methodology to cities from across the globe enabling them to adopt and contribute to the project. An in-depth reflection about the future, an invitation to participate in the creation of a better tomorrow.
For more information: possibles.ca
 
LA SERRE – arts vivants
LA SERRE is a decisive incubator for the development of performing arts. It positions itself as a collaboration agent between artists, various partners and the community. Artistically, LA SERRE promotes works and approaches that forge transparent links between the arts, nature and society and which foster encounters between the various disciplinary and sectorial sectors.
For more information: laserre.ca
 
The Society for the Celebration of Montréal’s 375th Anniversary
The Society for the Celebration of Montréal’s 375th Anniversary is a non-profit organization whose mission is to organize the celebrations and socioeconomic contributions that will highlight Montréal’s 375th anniversary in 2017.  With a focus on promoting Montréal expertise, it acts as a catalyst for local forces to carry out its mandate: mobilize the community, implement a funding strategy, rigorously manage funding, develop quality programming and ensure the visibility of the celebrations. The Society benefits from the support of the Ville de Montréal, the Gouvernement du Canda, the Gouvernement du Québec and private funding from 12 Great Montrealers. For more information: 375mtl.com 

Guillaume Adjutor Provost would like to thank CLARK, la SERRE, as well as everyone involved in the realisation of the project Providence: Ioanna Nima, Irène Fournaris, Sarah Chouinard-Poirier, Angie Cheng, François Pisapia, Roxanne Arsenault, Manon Tourigny, Corine Lemieux, Catherine Coupal-Schmidt, Jasmine Catudal, Vincent de Repentigny, Maude St-Pierre, Emmanuelle Côté Duret, and Étienne Fortin.