Si tu ne me vois pas, est-ce que j’existe toujours ? [If you don’t see me, do I still exist?]
“March 2020, our lives were upended. Our relationship to time and space was completely transformed. We found ourselves suspended, confronted with ourselves, unable to flee or distract ourselves. Remote working, family life, online classes, maintaining space for art-making. How can we find balance when our reference points have completely shifted?
Sucked into this void, weightless, it all seems so endless. These are the conditions under which we began our mentorship project. This virtual relationship to something surreal. We are only two voices over the telephone. A shared online diary and photo exchange. As Marcel Duchamp said, the viewer completes the work of art. Does looking at an artwork through the bluish light of our smartphones count? Is it really like seeing them in real life? Here’s hoping that this virtual mentorship will eventually enter the physical world.
The project is based on creating an installation that reflects the feeling of falling, of losing one’s bearings. A projection composed of video, animation, images, and text is projected onto a three-dimensional object, perhaps a large drawing or a sculpture of a female form. The latter is sometimes exposed, sometimes lost among the images. This accumulation makes us forget it is there, to the point where it becomes invisible. The installation is presented in different public spaces throughout Laval, where we observe and document the reactions of passersby or simply note the absence of viewers. When an artist creates, they leap into a void. What happens if no one is there to catch them?”
— Stéphanie Bourgault