ACTS WITHOUT WORDS – A mimodrama for five performers, identified as A, B, C, D and E, unfolds (in abstracto) in a monochrome cell.
Gentle silence.
The viewer, becoming protagonist, is invited into the cell.
C enters the space and looks around, turning his head from right to left. He clears his throat, a bit embarrassed, as he notices A sitting in sitting one of the room’s recesses.
The vaulted space forms a world, or rather a synthesized expression of a world, orchestrated according to specific parameters by F, G, H, I and J.
Despite their absence, the presence of D and E is felt.
Mildly indecent (like certain drapery in Giotto’s frescoes), the damp, fleshy pink of the cell cleaves the dreary grey of the quotidian.
Time pauses, stretches, and becomes longer.
The earthy aroma of the play intoxicates C’s nostrils. The odor reminds him of his childhood autumns, all spent in the country.
An opening at the top of the structure lets in a halo of artificial light that somewhat resembles daylight.
E enters the cell and settles into the unoccupied recess. A continues to roam the space.
Bootsteps. Muted laughter.
Preliminary staging plans, drawings and notes by F, assembled by G, hang from the outer shell of the structure. They map F’s reflective and conceptual path; observing them can (perhaps) serve as a key to unlock the project’s mysteries.
The artist and the curator gratefully thank Magali Babin for the sound design, Anne-Françoise Jacques for technical sound assistance and Raphaël Huppé-Alvarez for assistance with construction and installation of the structure.
The artist would like to thank the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec for its support.
BIOS
Belgian-born Stéphane Gilot has lived and worked in Montréal since 1996. Notable among his solo exhibitions are MULTIVERSITÉ/Métacampus (2012), at Galerie de l’UQÀM; Séjour Bistre, at L’Œil de poisson (2011); La Cité performative, at Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (2012) and Optica (2010); Le buvard du monde, at Occurrence (2010); Cineplastic Campus, at Blackwood Gallery (2008); La Station, at Oboro (2006); and Videogame, at Paul Petro Contemporary Art (Toronto, 2005). Group shows include Reverse Pedagogy, at Model Arts and Niland Gallery (Sligo, Ireland, 2009), the Quebec Triennale 2008, at Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, and Smile Machines, part of the 2006 Transmediale, in Berlin.
Art historian Ariane De Blois teaches at Collège de Rosemont and is currently completing a Ph.D. dissertation at McGill University on half-human, half-animal grotesque sculptures in contemporary art. In addition to curating the exhibition Et si les robots mangeaient des pommes?, at Maison des arts de Laval (2013-2014), she has co-curated projects including the exhibitions Rejouer/Déjouer le folklore : Suisse–Québec, at Maison de la culture Frontenac, Montréal, and Stadtgalerie Bern (2012), and Instantes : Adad Hannah, at Centro Nacional de las Artes, Mexico City (2012). Her writings have appeared in Esse and Etc. magazines and in the collection guide of Musée d’art de Joliette, where she sits on the board of directors.