centre d'artistes.artist run centre
a public conversation
in collaboration with The University of the Streets Café and Art Matters Festival
thu 21/02/08 from 7pm to 9pm
at articule
What influence does language have on the art and artistic practices that emerge from a franco-anglo-allophonic city like Montreal? Does a multi lingusitic context enable or exclude community involvement. Should artists be negotiating language politics or have a status that is 'above the law' for public expression? What gets diluted, warped or altogether lost in translation when we try to straddle two or more linguistic communities? What do we gain when we view translation as a creative and political proces? During this public conversation we will explore these questions with the help of local artists who base their practice in language and communicating with others.
Guests:
Sylvie Lachance is the co-artistic director (with Jacob Wren) of PME-ART, a Montreal-based interdisciplinary group. Their productions includes « En français comme en anglais, it's easy to criticize », « Unrehearsed Beauty/Le Génie des autres » & « La famille se crée en copulant / Families Are Formed Through Copulation » which have been seen in Canada and abroad. Sylvie has also been artistic director of Les 20 jours du théâtre à risque & MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels).
Karen Elaine Spencer is a wanderer, a loiterer, a rider of trains, a circulator of dreams. She takes the mundane events of ordinary life and mines these for their poetic underpinnings, taking time, taking time. Spencer's work has been presented in various art centres throughout Canada and Europe with recent exhibitions being: "Votre rêve dans mon oreille" at le Lobe in Chicoutimi, "lit de pain" in Paris, and "metro rider" at La Centrale in Montreal.
Karen Trask is a multidisciplinary visual artist, creating works in sculpture, artist books, video, printmaking and performance. Born and raised on a farm in southern Ontario, she has spent half her life in Quebec, between Québec City and now Montreal. She received a Master's degree in sculpture at Concordia University and has exhibited extensively in Canada and abroad. She just completed an interactive sound installation/performance at La Centrale Gallery Powerhouse and is currently dismantling over a hundred dictionaries for an exhibition to be held at la Galerie d'art d'Outremont in March.
Moderator:
Michelle Lacombe is an emerging visual artist working in performance and conceptual drawing. She obtained her BFA in visual arts from Concordia University in 2006. Her dedication to her creative production is paralleled by a strong interest in artist run culture and alternative forms of artistic dissemination. She currently works at articule as the programming assistant and is on the Board of directors at La Centrale Gallery Powerhouse.
Nourishing the popular imagination, the University of the Streets Café initiative is being organized in cafés and other public spaces in and around Montreal. The University of the Streets Café creates gathering places for community members to pursue lifelong learning and engagement in the form of collective discussions. These are crossroads of practical experience and intellectual currents on critical themes framed by inspired guests and skilled moderators. They are an opportunity for people of diverse backgrounds and socio-economic realities to meet, where all people and perspectives are welcome.
Art Matters has long been recognized as the largest and most established student-run Arts Festival in Canada. A collaborative effort of hundreds of emerging artists and curators, the festival is the creative synthesis of the truly talented, energized and diverse arts community present at Concordia University. This year's festival features the work of more than 200 artists, presented by 42 curators in over 30 dynamic exhibits and performances across Montreal. Incredibly, these events represent only a fraction of Concordia's abundant artistic talent.