Discussion/Exchange

Based on some experiences of the IDEA international Congress 2010, Belém, Brazil (July 2010)

Where:

LEVIER Studio, 4525 Saint-Jacques, Montréal (Closest metro station: Place-Saint-Henri)

When:

Saturday November 20, 2010 from 1 to 6 pm

Topic:

Community art seems to have become all the rage, with “cultural mediation”, “participatory”, and “relational” art projects increasingly being carried out by professional artists with funding from all levels of government and even private corporations. Is this a good thing or something to be worried about? Is enough critical attention being brought to bear on what is at stake for the communities involved? What about the ethics of collaboration in community art projects?

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The following blog post is a sum up of thoughts and feelings after three-day Engrenage Noir / LEVIER-sponsored event entitled How Many Slaves do You Own? Art and the Economies of Exploitation, Past and Present.

The entire How Many Slaves? weekend was a jumble of breakthroughs and new learnings for me. I saw, heard, and experienced so much in those three days in March that sometimes I thought I might explode. There was a tremendous amount of thought, compassion and reflection present in the room at all times and I found that it was so powerful for me to be around. I left the weekend feeling optimistic and hopeful, despite the fact that we had spent three days exploring really difficult issues.

I walked out the doors of the MAI on Sunday late afternoon with more questions then I did when I walked in. One of the central questions inside me was, and still is, “How many slaves do I own? How do I fit in to this system of oppression? And furthermore, how do I go on knowingly perpetuating things I do not like or agree with while at the same time wanting to live my life, be happy and fulfilled and make inner and outer change?” These are challenging questions that I have definitely not finished answering completely - nor do I think that I ever will be, however, being apart of this weekend event definitely pushed me in certain directions, as well as helped me to re-affirm certain things.

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In the following blog post I discuss how the three-day Engrenage Noir / LEVIER-sponsored event entitled How Many Slaves do You Own? Art and the Economies of Exploitation, Past and Present helped me to deal with feelings of anger. I explore how art and anger can be intertwined and how I have dealt with this in the past.

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This past week has been very interesting, especially speaking with the indigenous people from the Tembé tribe who I met a second time away from the hustle and bustle of the IDEA Congress. It was a great honour to be talking so directly with the Tembé Chief – I got to hear firsthand of his community’s struggles such as the poor health of many of his community members: people are dying of malaria and are not getting enough medical attention. During this second meeting – which lasted about one hour (in the presence of other Tembé community members as well as Moe Clark, Émilie Monnet, Martha Steigman and Devora Neumark) – the Chief talked about the importance of the connection with the land; that is the way that his people have survived. I shared with him how our community’s customs are linked to the land also and I spoke of how the Canadian and Quebec governments have been trying for years to break that connection.

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Belém, Para

Where do I start?

When I arrived in Brazil, the fly in was very beautiful… seeing the Amazon Forest, the green, all the nature from above… seeing the body of water and the different routes that it takes into the land… I just looked at it as being very rich in forest. Entering Belém was totally different… it got a little noisy and the smell of the city wasn’t very pleasant – it is a smell I dislike.

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It has already been several days since we were in Belem but the congress didn’t really begin until 2 days ago. It was hot - a little like Montreal during the last heat wave. The congress was held in different places in the city: at the university, in the casa de Linguagem downtown, in different theatres… The locations were separated. We had two choices - take expensive taxis or take the local bus. Two participants were pickpocketed.

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Document de présentation (français)

Presentation Document (English)

Documento de presentaciòn (español)

Moe Clark (Métis) and Emilie Monnet (Algonquin) come together to form “Bird Messengers”, a performance piece combining theatre, music, spoken word and media arts practices.

“As young artists, we feel deeply concerned with the destruction of Mother Earth and Indigenous ways of living. We heard elders say that our ancestral ways of prayer, peacemaking and healing are vitally needed today. It is our intention to bridge the wisdom of Indigenous peoples, from the past, present and future generations, through storytelling and song. Our vision is to serve as messengers, follow the migration, and support the reconnection and reconciliation of the peoples of Mother Earth. Through ethical transmission, reflection and artistic action, we wish to celebrate traditional knowledge with contemporary performance. This is how we hope to contribute towards a better world.”

Moe and Emilie have been working in collaboration with the Blackfoot community of Siksika in Alberta and the Algonquin community of Barriere Lake, Québec/Kitiganik, a member of which - Norman Matchewan - will be participating in the IDEA 2010 World Congress. For decades, the community of Barriere Lake has been fighting for the Canadian government to recognize their ancestral form of governance and inherent right to their traditional territory, culture and language. With this piece, the artists wish to explore how art can be a tool for protection of indigenous ways of life and for defending the land.

The Special Interest Group (SIG) Interculturalism / Translation / International Collaboration has invited Devora Neumark to join the four-day conversation being planned for the IDEA 2010 Event in Belém, Brazil. As a representative of LEVIER, Devora has articulated the issues and challenges related to this SIG as follows:

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Document de présentation (français)

Presentation Document (English)

Documento de presentaciòn (español)

English version of the text will be on line soon … Read more →