Ordonnance
Date : 21 septembre 2014
Lieu : White Avenue, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
Contexte : Festival de performance Visualeyez | Movement par la galerie Latitude 53.
Lieu : White Avenue, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
Contexte : Festival de performance Visualeyez | Movement par la galerie Latitude 53.
Crédit photo : Adam Waldron-Blain et Irene Loughlin
Texte de Irene Loughflin sur l'intervention performative "Ordonnance" réalisé sur le chemin de fer à Edmonton.
"Marie-Claude engages him [the policeman] in conversation about what belongs to the city and what belongs to nature. She asks, “Does that tree belong to the city? If I pick up a rock does that belong to the city?” He answers yes to both questions. Well, she has to get down because she’s distracting drivers and he will get in trouble with his boss if he leaves her there. Eventually she agrees and he offers her a lift down which is kind of a lovely gesture in the sunshine, somewhat brotherly. I might say paternalistic but he’s too young to be a father figure. He says that he has calls like this but usually its ‘mentally ill’ people. Damn mentally ill people get blamed for everything. He says he’s seen a lot worse from them. In any event they offer to take away Marie-Claude’s plank and the other officer tries to put it in the police van but it doesn’t fit so he gives it back to her. We talk together about the work and Marie-Claude mentions the policing of tension, what is permitted tension in our society and what is viewed as dangerous and must be stopped? When I think on this, it seems that permitted tension is always related to capitalist production. I am left with a final thought from Marie-Claude: “A small gesture can do as much as a large one”. I test her hypothesis against her performance and it works, as her materials and actions were quite subdued, but it was, however, the environment and the people interacting with her, which caused the happening."
"Marie-Claude engages him [the policeman] in conversation about what belongs to the city and what belongs to nature. She asks, “Does that tree belong to the city? If I pick up a rock does that belong to the city?” He answers yes to both questions. Well, she has to get down because she’s distracting drivers and he will get in trouble with his boss if he leaves her there. Eventually she agrees and he offers her a lift down which is kind of a lovely gesture in the sunshine, somewhat brotherly. I might say paternalistic but he’s too young to be a father figure. He says that he has calls like this but usually its ‘mentally ill’ people. Damn mentally ill people get blamed for everything. He says he’s seen a lot worse from them. In any event they offer to take away Marie-Claude’s plank and the other officer tries to put it in the police van but it doesn’t fit so he gives it back to her. We talk together about the work and Marie-Claude mentions the policing of tension, what is permitted tension in our society and what is viewed as dangerous and must be stopped? When I think on this, it seems that permitted tension is always related to capitalist production. I am left with a final thought from Marie-Claude: “A small gesture can do as much as a large one”. I test her hypothesis against her performance and it works, as her materials and actions were quite subdued, but it was, however, the environment and the people interacting with her, which caused the happening."