Presented as part of Knot Projections 2019: Imagining Publics, a city-wide public art exhibition in Ottawa running from July-November 2019, featuring five new commissions by Ottawa artists at four outdoor locations. The exhibition was the culmination of a year-long commissioning program, which ran simultaneously with the Video in the Public Sphere speaker series – a discursive program featuring international artists and scholars who spoke Knot Project Space and at times ran workshops and seminars on themes related to public art. More info about the project can be found here.
In Dialogue
This dialogue was between Jean-Michel Quirion and artist Hélène Lefebvre about her commissioned video work ‘Open Water’ – the first projection in Knot Projections 2019: Imagining Publics, a city-wide public art project. The dialogue focused on Lefebvre’s work as a unique performance document intended for playback in public space, engaging with a pre-existing architecture and surface, and addressing a transitory viewership. An immersive screening of the work inside Knot Project Space played prior to the dialogue.
Hélène Lefebvre
Based in Ottawa, Canada, Hélène Lefebvre’s practice is an inquiry into identity and alterity, all the while weaving links between visual art, culture, and society. The body in movement and sensorial active listening (epicentre of performance action) have been sustained interests of hers since Les Moissons in 2009. Recently, her work has taken the form of performance, installation and video. Her practice in corporeality takes inspiration from studies in visual art, contemporary dance, and authentic movement—a form in which improvisation is central.
Jean-Michel Quirion
Jean-Michel Quirion is an MA candidate in museology at Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQO). He currently works as Artistic Coordinator at AXENÉO7 artist-run centre, in Gatineau, Quirion is also a member of Montreal-based research collective CIÉCO: Collections et impératif événementiel / The Convulsive collections. As an independent curator, his most recent project, the veil of deception, was presented at Galerie Laroche / Joncas in Montreal in 2019. He regularly publishes in art magazines such as esse art + opinions, ESPACE art actuel, Inter art actuel, and Ciel variable.
Related Programming
Public Art: Open Water, Hélène Lefebvre. July 27 – Aug. 10, 2019.