Every summer for the past ten years, Place Publique has occupied a section of rue Ottawa, confirming the presence of art and artists in a neighbourhood where major companies, innovative businesses, and new and long-established residents live side by side. A festive venue devoted to exchange and experimentation, it stands out as a space where social connections are forged around contemporary art, ecology, and civic engagement. In 2019 more than ever, the Place Publique program was conceived in a spirit of openness that fosters the coexistence of a plurality of voices. This is why art, research, and community organizations, including Concordia University’s SenseLab and the Espace Cercle Carré and Esperluette housing co-ops, have been invited to invest the space, in parallel to the events staged by the Darling Foundry.

Possible Awakenings is a series of six evenings of performances proposed by Milly-Alexandra Dery, programming assistant responsible for audience development and hospitality at the Darling Foundry. For this 12th edition, inspired by her encounters with the neighbourhood community, workers and residents alike, Dery has brought together an eclectic array of artistic interventions that engage with the public in surprising ways. Various interactive temporary installations, performances, and collective creations encourage participation in an experience that promotes role sharing between performer and observer. Public participation takes centre stage, be it through a simulated performance of a yoga class or through an outlandish version of speed-dating, involving objects inspired by the world of science fiction. Minimalist happenings, performance labs, or the recording of improvised scenarios offer other opportunities to reactivate the ideal of non-hierarchical collective creation.

Possible Awakenings invites the public to get involved and have fun by embracing the unpredictable. Using strategies borrowed from experimental theatre, pirate radio, and the world of DIY, the participating artists propose unique, sometimes perplexing situations on the boundary between reality and performance. These shared moments in Place Publique make visible the connections emerging from encounters between individuals and groups, as well as the factors influencing the relationship between the self and others.

In a spirit of knowledge sharing, artists and art historians are also invited to initiate dialogue on performance art with a view to opening up the discipline to a non-initiated public. In a sharing knowledge spirit, Steve Giasson thus presents a lecture-performance in homage to conceptual artist Ian Wilson, and the research collective Une bibliographie commentée: l’art de la performance au Québec et au Canada proposes ways of transforming their findings into action. These reflections on oral communication and the presentation of archives make indirect use of educational and pedagogical strategies to address the legacy of relational art in an informal manner and to spark discussion on the role of art and its impact on our everyday lives, by allowing the public to appropriate the language codes of performance art.

PROGRAM / 

June 13 - Opening of summer exhibitions
À enfiler en cas d'urgence, a performance by Pascale Théorêt-Groulx

June 20 - Los subrogados | The Surrogates
Copresented by the MUAC and the MAC, in collaboration with the Darling Foundry
Conceived by Véronique Leblanc, guest curator at the MAC et Alejandra Labastida, associate curator at the MUAC, Mexico, in complicity with the artists
Montreal : Juan Caloca, Nadia Lartigue, Alicia Medina, Guillermo Santamarina
Mexico : Sarah Chouinard-Poirier, Catherine Lavoie-Marcus, Helena Martin Franco, Martín Rodríguez 

June 27 - Possible Awakenings - part 1
Le collectif des auto-workshops, Miranda Jones

July 4 - Possible Awakenings - part 2  
Domus (Les résonnances des plateformes) 
A project by Massimo Guerrera, with the participation of Sylvie Cotton, Hugo Nadeau et Jonathan Morier 

July 11 - Make Space for a Surprise to Arise
A carte blanche evening to SenseLab, from Concordia University

July 18 - Possible Awakenings - part 3
Ahreum Lee, Nicole Fournier

July 25 - Possible Awakenings - part 4
Roxa Hy + Nien Tzu Weng, Layla Marcelle Mrozowski

August 1 - Possible Awakenings - part 5
Steve Giasson, Une bibliographie commentée en temps réel : Sophie Castonguay et Francys Chenier. 

August 8 - Possible Awakenings - part 6
Nicole Fournier, Tina Carlisi, Victoria Stanton, Sylvaine Chassay*
*In collaboration with Dans la Rue

August 15 - Minor Movements
A carte blanche evening to SenseLab, from Concordia University

August 22 - En attendant sa chute II
A carte blanche evening to cooperative housings Cercle Carré and l’Esperluette

AN OPEN AND FREE SPACE /

Place Publique is above all a fun venue open to all. Bar Second Nature, open Wednesday to Sunday during our exhibition opening hours, is a great spot to have lunch with colleagues, to share a glass or two after work with friends, or to spend time with family over the weekend.