Pièce pour cinq interprètes at the Havana biennial: an interview with Stéphane Gilot and Ariane De Blois

Presented in the spring of 2014 at pfoac221 (Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain) in Montréal, the installation Pièce pour cinq interprètes, lumière rose et silence was created by Stéphane Gilot in close collaboration with curator Ariane De Blois. An immersive and poly-sensorial structure, midway between a bunker and meditative cell, the work will be presented at the 12th edition of the Havana Biennial, which has the theme “Between the Idea and Experience.” Advancing a transdisciplinary and intermedial perspective of art, the Biennial’s team of curators seek to contribute to the “displacement of the autonomous object to the context and experiences”1 1  - “12th Havana Biennial: Between the Idea and Experience.” Biennial Foundation (May 1, 2014), accessed March 1, 2015, www.biennialfoundation.org/2014/05/havana-biennial-2015-curatorial-concept/. by means of projects spread across the city that each, in their own way, generates interactions with the social fabric. This interview, conducted by correspondence, highlights the rationale of this multi-faceted project in order to elucidate the defining characteristics of its presentation on Cuban soil.

Aseman Sabet : Reading your correspondence, which served to present the work in 2014, it is possible to follow the initial development of the project and the threads that allowed you to elaborate its key ideas. Before delving more specifically into the work, what conceptual motivations and theoretical or practical research interests led you to work collaboratively?