Something's Out There

Something's out there. It's called : winter. Somebody, saddened by the empty snow-filled streets at night, had the brilliant idea of launching a festival called "Montréal en Lumière", a one-day festival, really, that would go on all night as well because, if you're to call it a festival, it needs to last a bit and offer up several things to do.

The 25th of February might not be the perfect date to keep people out all night, drifting from place to place, in the gigantic downtown network of Montreal. I've seen some quiet night in the past years, but on Saturday, we received the supreme divine gift : -30 fuckin' celsius.

Should it come as a surprise that Miss Bijoux's & my enthousiasm were both... cold showered by this "extreme weather" ? We had planned on going, maybe, as far as the CCA, and for sure as far as the MBA to see the expo on the Great Catherine. While waiting for the bus, we gave Bruce Benson a ring to see where he was at. He was at MAC (Musée d'Art Contemporain) and was basically just walking around the lobby because there was a 45 minutes line-up to see Anselm Kiefer's expo.

We then decided to grab the last train on the orange line to go down to Berri-UQAM, and we tried to sneak into the Cinémathèque's SAQ Bistrot to say hi to the Drunk Rocker on his wild short films night. The place was JAM PACKED and the air was thick with cigarette smoke, so we left. We went to UQAM's design pavillon to see the "Design Made in Africa" expo, which was quite sweet. It was basically the last day to see it; funky & functional furniture was at the rendez-vous.

Inspired by a pure Miss Bijoux moment, we went to the Visual Arts Pavillon to see what was going on in there. It was spectral; walking through the "underground city" with no living soul to be seen, except for the mandatory security guard here and there. We went to eat soup & sandwiches in the quiet cocoon that is Resto du Village around this time of the night, and we took a cab home.

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Which bring us to... Raphaëlle de Groot. She's the artist currently exposing at the UQAM Gallery, with her "En Exercice" show, and let me tell you, it's worth the détour.

Call me a sociophile, but her project with Italian textile workers really touched me. I probably didn't see it the way she intended me to, but isn't this what "art" is all about ? Personal interpretation ? Neuronal connections ?

Raphaëlle spent some time working in an Italian factory, and came up with some projects with the other employees, involving color shemes, mailboxes, and questions they were asking themselves & could answer while taking pictures of their everyday life.

The explanations are on the wall, right there, but something else attracted my eyes when I entered the room : the photographs. Hundreds of 'em, all stuck on the wall following a precise pattern. So yes, I kinda overlooked the "mission statement" on the left, and went straight over there.

At first it just looked like random photographs, probably not taken by the same person, but always shot according to a weird amateur angle, and perfectly framed to capture the moment. One of them stroke me more than the others : a family, on a rock by the sea, playing with a kite. There is a sense of tragedy that we can almost FEEL, and just by looking at the picture, we can almost hear the waves clashing on the beach's rocks, and the wind, and smell the ocean.

There also was a series of images from the factory's everyday life. And a column dedicated to pictures with a bit of finger in the objective. In the room, blaring really loudly, a recording of the factory noises was playing. There also was a section where we could hear some messages the employees left Raphaëlle after she left the country to come back to Montreal. The overall mood of the room was very strong. So strong in fact that the rest of her work didn't seem connected to the rest as methodically.

Raphaëlle is offering live "performances" where she interacts with the public, and her installation is at the Gallery until mid-April. I really suggest you check it out, and I will most certainly be back there soon to investigate further, with a clear head.