On November 12, I’d rather something ambiguous. Mais précis à la fois, an exhibition of work curated by Sophie Bélair Clément and Marie Claire Forté, opens at Concordia’s Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery.
In keeping with the gallery’s mandate to respond to societal issues, tensions and changes, Clément and Forté explore spatiality, movement, fertility and aging.
We spoke to Forté about the artists’ inspiration for the exhibition.
What will visitors to the gallery see in the space?
Marie Claire Forté: Gallery patrons can expect a collection of work gathered around a question Sophie and I have, which is: what generates movement? Video works by artists Isabelle Pauwels and Jason Simon, plus a video installation by Sophie will be shown for the duration of the exhibition.
We will screen Chantal Akerman’s No Home Movie at the Cinémathèque Québécoise on November 28, K8 Hardy’s Outfitumentary in the gallery on November 19 and December 13, and Catherine Lalonde will do a poetry reading on December 6.
Once or twice a week, I will perform a choreography that I created with my friend Alanna Kraaijeveld. Additionally, we’ll display some posters Isabelle made and we’ll be assembling a book of texts sourced from the project (the works, the artists and the thinking behind it).
Visually, the gallery will be sparsely occupied and the art will invite the viewer to spend a good amount of time there. During the events, the space will also function as a performance venue and a screening room.
What is the significance of the exhibition title?
MCF: Sophie and I are quoting a conversation that we had about the title. It intentionally doesn’t define a unifying lens to consider the art. It is open-ended, a presentation rather than a representation. And it’s a true statement: we value specificity, and enjoy when specificity leads to multiplicity or ambiguity.