10 YEAR S OF UR GENCY / ATSA

Transcription

1 10 YEAR S OF UR GENCY / ATSA

2 10 Years of Urgency 2014 The New Gallery Press Printed in Canada Designed and edited by Steven Cottingham, featuring contributions from Pierre Allard, Natalie Boterman, Véronique Leblanc, Annie Roy, Su Ying Strang. All photos courtesy Martin Savoie, the artists, the gallery, and the internet. ISBN Centre St S, Calgary, AB, T2G 2B6 thenewgallery.org/

3 DRAMATIS PERSONÆ DRAMATIS PERSONÆ ATSA (Action Terroriste Socialement Acceptable) is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1998 by artists Pierre Allard and Annie Roy. The pair creates transdisciplinary works and events for the public realm that take the form of interventions, installations, performance art and realistic stagings. Their actions are born of a desire to raise public awareness on various social, environmental and heritage issues that are crucial and that need to be addressed. ATSA is the recipient of the 2010 Pratt & Whitney Canada Nature de l Art Prize awarded by the Conseil des arts de Montréal, the Citoyen de la Culture 2008 award handed out by Les Arts et la Ville, and the Artistes pour la Paix 2008 award. Mexico. She possesses a Masters degree in Art History from the Université du Québec à Montréal, where she teaches art history. Su Ying Strang has worked as Administrative Director at The New Gallery since Years of Urgency by ATSA was on view in The New Gallery s Main Space (208 Centre St SE) from June 27 to August 2, Natalie Boterman has worked as Gallery and Residency Assistant at The New Gallery since Steven Cottingham has worked as Programming Coordinator at The New Gallery since Véronique Leblanc is a curator and writer interested in context-based, relational practices and the connections between art, ethics, and politics. She has curated shows featuring the work of Artur Żmijewski (Poland), Paul Wiersbinski (Germany), Dave Ball (United Kingdom), Jean-Pierre Aubé, Patrick Beaulieu, Louis-Philippe Côté, Jean-Pierre Gauthier, Jonathan Villeneuve, and ATSA (Canada), among others. In 2011, she received the Canadian Art Writing Prize. In 2013 she participated in a Curatorial research residency in Mexico City, organized by Oboro in Montréal and Laboratorio Arte Alameda in 2 3

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5 10 YEAR S OF EM ERGENC Y VÉRONIQUE LEBLANC Some insights into homelessness and social inequality. Produced by ATSA over a ten-year period, État d Urgence (State of Emergency) was an urban intervention blurring the lines between art, activism, and community action, but it constituted first and foremost an encounter. The event initially focused on propagating a jarring image that of a refugee camp in Montréal s downtown core, taken over by homeless persons seeking refuge but was gradually transformed into an art-driven celebration whose aim was to spark out-of-the-ordinary rubbings of shoulders between members of the general public, street people, artists and other participants. Within this meeting space marked by a tenuous balance between a sense of social solidarity and a confrontation with otherness visual artists were invited to express themselves. Thus, beyond rallying individuals of all stripes and backgrounds, État d Urgence brought artistic practices in touch with the reality of homelessness. By bringing together many of the artistic works featured during the event over the years, the 10 Years of Urgency exhibit offers multiple approaches to the topic of social precarity. It creates a dedicated space for reflecting on our relationships with others and on the phenomenon of exclusion. Whereas the event itself took place within the rough-and-tumble setting of street life and was at one with the tumult and tension it sought to describe, the exhibit presents a selection of works and documents that invites the visitor to discover situations of homelessness that are as singular as they are complex. Here, the shock value that was a hallmark of 7

6 10 YEARS OF EMERGENCY VÉRONIQUE LEBLANC État d Urgence gives way to another form of visibility, one set in a different temporality. This remove allows a more nuanced, multifaceted appreciation of the reality of others lives and of poverty, social marginality, substance abuse, mental health and of resourcefulness and solidarity. The exhibit also enables a different take on the performance-based or process-driven works that may have garnered little attention in their original production setting. Different artistic philosophies seem to emerge from this meeting of art and street life. Where some artists adopt a documentary approach through photo and video portraits, others hew to a more investigative path, gathering individual stories that convey the intimate aspect of the experience of homelessness. Still others create objects, images or installations that symbolically allude to exclusion, wandering or courage, as a way to stimulate debate or the collective imagination. Many artists also tackle the topic of informal architecture, for instance through the invention of prototypes of temporary dwelling units and the construction of mobile devices intended for urban nomads. Finally, some projects are the fruit of collaborative creation with organizations that work closely with street people; these works propound a view of art as a means of self-expression and self-representation. Common to all these approaches is their use of poor and found objects, their openness to different forms of collaboration, and their treatment of topics related as much to the root causes of social inequality as to its effects. An abundance of archival material on the event rounds off the exhibit, imparting to the visitor a sense of the good cheer and distress that commingled in État d Urgence. A veritable crucible of contrasts, État d Urgence turned the public space into a forum for art that was focused on homelessness and exclusion, where visitors became, in a temporary reversal of roles, the outsiders looking in. This destabilizing aspect of the event succeeded in turning the stereotype of the homeless person on its head. Along the same lines, the works presented here seek to confound conventional approaches, notably by giving the subjects a voice of their own, thus providing the observer a more intimate glimpse into lesser-known facets of homelessness, and serving as proof that contemporary artistic practices can stimulate necessary reflection on the challenges facing our world. 8 9

7 A VENU E FOR V OICES / A CONV ERSATI ON PIERRE ALLARD AND ANNIE ROY A discussion with Pierre Allard, Natalie Boterman, Steven Cottingham, and Annie Roy. The transcription of this conversation has been edited and condensed from its original form. Annie Roy 10 Years of Urgency comes from this event in Montréal called State of Emergency. Maybe we can talk about that a bit more later, but we invited a lot of artists to make special works around the theme of homelessness. There were professional artists and also homeless people making work and we thought it would be really interesting to gather some of the best work and show it in the context of an artist-run centre outside of the exhibition of the street so you can really take the time to see the work without necessarily being within its first context, to give it more of a certain distance. And that s why we thought it would be interesting to gather this work, but also because it is impossible to tour the event itself. The work speaks about [the event] and the condition of homeless people and the importance of art. Steven Cottingham The themes and subjects you are dealing with are not necessarily Montréal-specific. There is definitely something about each individual city s unique community, but I think some of these works, especially some of these proposals for how to counter or partially mediate these situations, are universally applicable. Annie There are art pieces about habitat, about how to express yourself, your culture, the traces on your body of 11

8 PIERRE ALLARD AND ANNIE ROY your pain and distress, and also how you live economically. It s a matter of how you live your life in the street and how you survive. But there is also a lot of joy. It s colourful and I think we get a feel for the individual, for the people, and everyone who lives this reality. It s quite intimate at the same time. Steven I think intimate is a good word. It s also kind of overwhelming; even its presentation in the space, it s very present. It can t be ignored. There is always more to see once you start looking, and I think ignorance is a huge issue when dealing with these themes. Pierre Allard Like Annie said, we have a lot of different practices, so the work is pretty wide. There are principal arts, craft-making, working with people, and collaborations with the street people and the artists. On the street, we always try to give a key to the public. When you are working in the street, you are making an effort to reach the public. In this show, some of the artworks are really easy to reach and I think that s important, while others require a bit more and you have to read to maybe understand a bit more. We really try to make sure it s welcoming. Steven So you see your role as sort of helping different communities interact and communicate? Annie I think it s both. When we do an event like State of Emergency it s as much just for our part to be a mirror of society, to put this in your face. You don t want to see 13

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10 A VENUE FOR VOICES PIERRE ALLARD AND ANNIE ROY poverty sometimes, you have homeless people here and there, but when you gather them in a park, in a kind of village, then it shows how big the problem is. So for us, it s as much to speak about our indignation and this indifference that we live with like it is normal. But then we also talk a lot about social architecture because we like to imagine that we ve put together many kinds of people in society. For this event it was particularly a challenge to make it a village, a kind of microcosm where people could live together for five days, twenty-hour hours a day so you could sleep, have three meals a day, in addition to the art and festivities. It s also a mechanism of encounter between people, as well as a social construction to make people realize we have all we need in society to make it work universally. Pierre We worked with hundreds of companies. You start feeling like people want some change, but they don t know how and they don t know where to start. When you offer them a possibility to get involved, people are good-hearted. We had so many businesses coming to us wanting to do this event. Feeding five hundred people per day, we had a restaurant open twenty-four hours where you could get sandwiches and soup and doughnuts, so it was crazy and we had barbers on site and we had people doing massages. We had a doctor and a counselor, so it became like a kind of a global village. It was a utopia. The project for us is like an art form and we try to get become as idealistic as possible in the proposal. And with the art it was very important to make a connection. Annie At the same time, our work is to show this trash. It s not nice, you know? Our work is to make it look not so frightening so you can feel like you can come and meet people that you normally fear. It s a give and take situation, where you want as much to denounce it and be strong about it, and at the same time to be very welcoming and not make people too frightened about it either because you want them to come. But then you want to continue to show that it s bad Pierre It s funny because it s another contradiction also, when you look at street people you re freaked out because that s misery, and you see them sleeping on tables, but for them, those five days of ATSA it s a great holiday. They have food, they meet people, and they have clothing. It s funny depending on which side of society you are on. Natalie Boterman So this is a five day social event that you are creating. The space that you are creating is an idealized space where people can come and have food and feel comfortable and be entertained, but do you think that this project is then creating a void or a gap that exists after because you are giving them something but then it doesn t exist later on. It s not a reality. Annie I don t think so, but I think this is a critique we have received sometimes. Our response to that is that we all need extraordinary moments in life to go back to when you have a lack of hope. For example, you probably went one time to a really great restaurant that you 16 17

11 PIERRE ALLARD AND ANNIE ROY ordinarily couldn t afford, but you remember it made you feel important for that moment and for the rest of your life because you had the possibility to go. So I think it s the same for everybody s life that you can have this unique time, just like when you go on a holiday and you can refer to that. But I also think art is not necessarily a savior. We are not social workers; we are not a community centre for three hundred and sixty-five days a year, that s not what we produce. What we produce is an extraordinary moment to make the media talk about it and to create some enlightenment around it. But you cannot sustain a strong effort alone for many months. It can happen because it is extraordinary. When it s a really short time like that we gather a lot of energy, we are really proud of that, we can gather together and say, See you next year, and we get to live this family moment. I think this is the purpose and the goal of a moment like that. Pierre At first we thought it would be good to stay open longer. Some years we did five days, and then we did ten days, and then we start thinking to just go through the winter. But we needed too much security. Five days we can contain the tension. Over a long period it would be more difficult to handle it. Annie Also, I think politically you don t want to say to the government, We can do it, don t bother about it, it s not your responsibility to take care of the people and stuff. We ll do it. No. It s not about taking the responsibility away from the government, it s mostly about us as citizens, not as social workers. We think this cause is super 19

12 A VENUE FOR VOICES PIERRE ALLARD AND ANNIE ROY important so we ll do an event about it and ask politicians to look at it and do something about it. Because homeless people alone are ignored and often aren t in a place in their lives where they can organize and do it. But if the population who pays taxes and votes say it s important to us that you take care of it, then it becomes an important political issue. We re saying it s not only a social worker issue. It s an issue for any citizens in this city to see that their neighbours are taken care of. Steven You don t want to position this as a special luxury for the homeless community, a vacation or a once-ayear thing. This is how it should be all the time. You are demonstrating that to people with more power and more resources. Annie The right to gather, the right to regroup yourself in a public place and to be there. Pierre But I think you are right about that, the main concern is that by doing this we are gathering the homeless together to create that big picture in the street that says, Look, we are five hundred people living here, in poverty and surrounded with all that richness and you have five days to come and have great moments together. So the main goal is to provoke that picture and that encounter. Natalie How do you see the relationship between a social practice and a gallery space, and why do you choose this type of space to show this work? Pierre When we show the artwork in the camp you are overwhelmed with people all around you and you have to deal with a lot of emotion. You can look at the work but you also are in the scene so you don t have the same feeling as you do in an art gallery. As we gather all the work here you have more time to think and to be alone so it prompts a different perspective away from the surrounding people. Annie Also, I look at some of the artists who would never have made this work if it were not for us commissioning them to do so. But then, it s great to witness the event distantly through the art pieces that now exist. It gives everything another life. It is pertinent to put it out and say, Look at this great work that happened at this event. It s quality artwork. When we were doing the event, the media understandably focused more on the issue itself than the art that is going on. But then when you put the art in an art context of course you are going to speak about the work and the journey of the artists. You are going to have a different conversation about it. Steven Thinking about art as a political tool, one of the best things it can do is just provide a venue for voices that differ from majority culture to be expressed and considered valid. Annie And there are so many talented people. And so much courage from some of the professional artist who would think, How can I do something for this event? So the artists that are there, the work is really from the guts 20 21

13 PIERRE ALLARD AND ANNIE ROY because you feel that they re not thinking of where they are in their career. It s the courage to show their work outside in a population that is not knowledgeable about art. We have so many stories about this struggle. Steven How did you get started? Pierre With this project? Steven Yes. Pierre Everything started with love. We had just met and we were listening to the radio and they were talking about the bank having just made seventy-nine billion dollars in their last quarter and then right after they were saying a shelter in Montréal needed about one hundred pairs of socks everyday. And we were thinking that this is crazy, this reporting one after each other. This cannot be. Annie So we thought, let s do a refugee camp downtown in our rich city. So that was the first picture. We thought symbolically everybody would come and sleep there. Pierre The plan was to invite the public to come and sleep a weekend with us downtown. Annie And of course the homeless too, everybody together! But, the homeless community came and there were a lot of people. We didn t have enough beds; we didn t have enough of anything. So it became a kind of war zone. We needed everything and that s when the 23

14 PIERRE ALLARD AND ANNIE ROY energy of the camp started and the homeless people started to get really involved with what they could get involved with. Everybody would kind of put their hands in and work where needed. It was a place where you have the right to be. Pierre says more important than the food and clothing and everything is the ambience of living openly. Like, I have the right to be here and to express who I am. And Pierre is wonderful at making people feel included. He really has a way of making everyone useful with the skills they have. There is always something you can do with your condition. And to make people feel they are in their most positive presentation with what they are. All the creativity that is there shows all the talent there is. Steven That s very Marxist, no? Annie Probably. Yeah. That s why we say idealistic. Because you can live that for five days, but then other things happen. Steven But an important gesture to demonstrate to others, and to the banks who made whatever money in their last quarter, and to people who possess resources. Annie I guess the mission of this project is don t let yourself be indifferent just because it won t necessarily change. When you do things like that and you have a lot of media attention, and you re young you think maybe it s going to change a lot of things, but with the years you see that it takes a lot of energy to make a very small 25

15 A VENUE FOR VOICES PIERRE ALLARD AND ANNIE ROY change. But still it was worth it. What would happen if you didn t do it? Pierre You do things and it may change people and give them the energy to do something and then all these actions together make difference. Like, by doing what we have been doing in Montréal, we were then invited to do something in Toronto and Vancouver. And we met someone and they started to do an event in Vancouver called Homeground. All these little connections, you have to start at some point. Pierre I see the camp as an art project itself because all of the contrasts happening in the camp. It s really hard to see the complexity of our project; there are too many levels for people and sometimes it s hard to see what we are doing as an artwork. But we are not addressing just one question, and we are definitely not providing answers but spreading energy! Steven Your actions were crucial in inspiring the This Is My City arts festival to begin in Calgary. We ve worked with them before, too, to use art to speak about homelessness and wealth disparities. Annie It was important for us to invite the most expensive restaurant to see if they were willing to give a five course meal to the street. To take the extremes of your city and put it together to erase the gap for this time and to get rid of exclusions for this period of time. Steven You don t get what you don t ask for. Annie Yeah! And that s why we were so happy they said yes. They are passionate people, those people who cook with local food. Natalie It brings to the forefront the people who are in it for the right reasons

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