![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/84-ART4-IMG2-IM_Sabet_gilot_Ext30_CMYK_resultat.jpg\")
<\/strong>Pi\u00e8ce pour cinq interpr\u00e8tes, lumi\u00e8re rose et silence<\/em>, 2014, installation view.
Photo : pfoac, courtesy of the artist
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Aseman Sabet :<\/strong> 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?<\/p>\n\n\n\n St\u00e9phane Gilot :<\/strong> When Pierre-Fran\u00e7ois Ouellette suggested inviting a curator to develop a project for pfoac221, the article that Ariane De Blois had written on my exhibition Multiversit\u00c9\/M\u00e9tacampus<\/em>, presented at Galerie de l\u2019UQAM in the fall of 2012, immediately sprang to mind. This article touched on several questions that drive my practice and seemed a promising starting point for exchange for a carte blanche project of this kind. Ariane had examined my work in light of the \u201crelationships that we maintain with the world and its organization\u201d and the interplay \u201cbetween the over-determination of the space and the defamiliarization of locations.\u201d2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 2 <\/a> - Ariane De Blois, \u201cSt\u00e9phane Gilot. MULTIVERSIT\u00c9\/M\u00e9tacampus,\u201d esse<\/em>, no. 77 (Winter 2013): 70\u200a\u2013\u200a71 (our translation).<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ariane De Blois :<\/strong> To my mind, St\u00e9phane belongs in the great tradition of encyclopaedic artists. His work is the fruit of a synthesis of multiple influences, from the painting of Giotto to the architectural projects of \u00c9tienne-Louis Boull\u00e9e, the theatre of Samuel Beckett, the cinema of Andrei Tarkovsky, the literature of Adolfo Bioy Casares, and the music of Gy\u00f6rgy Ligeti. To absorb and understand his work conceptually, I first had to familiarize myself with his multi-layered artistic and \u00adintellectual horizon. Since the concept of heterotopia3<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 3 <\/a> - Michel Foucault, Dits et \u00e9crits 1984<\/em>, \u201cDes espaces autres\u201d (conference, Cercle d\u2019\u00e9tudes architecturales, March 14, 1967), Architecture, Mouvement, Continuit\u00e9<\/em>, no. 5 (October 1984): 46\u200a\u2013\u200a49, (our translation).<\/span>\u200a\u2014\u200athe idea of \u201canother world\u201d\u200a\u2014\u200ais an overarching theme in his work, it was around this theme that our discussions mainly revolved. Our exchanges were quickly shaped by the sketches and ideas proposed by the artist, whose practice centres on two major series of works: Plans d\u2019\u00e9vasion (Escape Plans) and Mondes mod\u00e8les (Model Worlds).<\/p>\n\n\n\n SG :<\/strong> The works in the first series, such as Free Will<\/em> (2000\u201301), The Station<\/em> (2006), and An Abode of Indiscernible Hue<\/em> (2011), are performative installations that focus on diverse forms of utopia and dystopia, architecture, social structures, cosmology, and epistemology. Each escape plan is presented as a constructed environment, a hybrid space (combining uses with formal and metaphorical languages sometimes from contradictory fields) in which the spectators (or performers) can settle for a while. These works are, in some way, cells for transformation that offer the spectator a life experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The second series, Mondes mod\u00e8les, which includes Performative City<\/em> (2010\u201312) and My Kind of Fun is Darker than Yours<\/em> (2013),<\/em> complements the first through the notion of the model. Composed of various sets of architectural maquettes, this series in a sense constructs the meta-narrative of my practice over the past fifteen years. Each installation is a miniaturized urban environment that includes references to previous projects, including numerous escape plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n AS : <\/strong>The collaborative principle inherent to the work is also suggested in its title, which makes reference to five performers. Different readings of these five protagonists are conceivable. What led you to this plural conception of the work and, more specifically, to the integration of a sound space also composed of various parts?<\/p>\n\n\n\n ADB : <\/strong>St\u00e9phane\u2019s work always offers several entry points, possible readings, and interpretations. The concept of the multitude is inherent to his practice, and it is around this that he constructs his \u201cworlds,\u201d be they in the form of models or escape plans. It therefore comes as no surprise that he is interested in scientific multiverse theories, which are also found in science fiction. Instead of trying to understand the whole of existence under a single principle\u200a\u2014\u200athe Universe, which governs all laws\u200a\u2014\u200amultiverse theories, in contrast, allow us to conceive of a totality of possible, coexisting universes. St\u00e9phane could say more about the different meanings evoked by the title of the installation, but it is worth noting from the outset that if, due to its external architectural structure, Pi\u00e8ce pour cinq interpr\u00e8tes<\/em> at first seems like a closed world, it nevertheless invites visitors to linger in its vaulted alcove, to become the protagonists of the work, and to inscribe it with their own interpretations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SG : <\/strong>To a certain extent, the title acts as a lure. The cell constitutes a world\u200a\u2014\u200aor the synthetic expression of a world\u200a\u2014\u200awhose parameters and conditions of existence emerge from the association and collaboration of five specialists: gallery owner, curator, artist, technician, and sound specialist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The installation also features five structural motifs: two entrances placed diagonally opposite each other, two two-person alcoves that face each other in the interior, and a light shaft. Thus, the organization of the space implies four performers potentially seated in the alcoves. The fifth person, evoked in the title, is supernumerary: a presence that is temporarily one of waiting, of suspended choice; a presence that remains standing. The performers are the visitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As in previous installations, sound participates in the mise en fiction<\/em> of the work. It is intrinsically linked with the \u201cpresence\u201d that inhabits the space in which the project is installed. More specifically, the soundtrack reinforces what the space already creates (a gateway between the reality of the gallery and the city, and the parallel world of the cell), while allowing the temporal play between \u201cpresent presence\u201d and prior presence to evolve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n AS :<\/strong> Considering the theme of this biennial, \u201cBetween the Idea and Experience,\u201d to what extent will Pi\u00e8ce pour cinq interpr\u00e8tes, lumi\u00e8re rose et silence<\/em>\u200a\u2014\u200aone of whose principal parameters is precisely the experience of the spectator\u200a\u2014\u200abe adapted in view of its new presentation context? Will the soundtrack, originally composed by artist Magali Babin for the Belgo building in Montr\u00e9al, still reinforce spatio-temporal blurring when the work is presented in its new location, the lobby of an art deco building in Havana?<\/p>\n\n\n\n ADB :<\/strong> Long before St\u00e9phane was invited to participate in the Biennial and before knowing the theme of the event, our joint reflection on his practice, and what led to the conception of Pi\u00e8ce pour cinq interpr\u00e8tes, lumi\u00e8re rose et silence<\/em> focused mainly on what transpires between<\/em> the concept of a work, its materialization, and its experience. Diverse installation elements presented in Montr\u00e9al sought explicitly to highlight this idea of the \u201cbetween.\u201d The installation, for example, was designed to bring into play notions of interiority and exteriority. While the exterior of the installation resembles a greyish bunker, the interior takes on the appearance of a vaulted cell in a lewd shade of pink. Affixed to one of the exterior walls, a series of preparatory sketches presented various potential projects that St\u00e9phane had conceived of, thus reflecting what the project could have been<\/em>. Comprising sounds captured in situ<\/em>, the soundtrack, reverberating through the walls of the installation, sought to confuse the spectator about the origins of the sounds (were they real, imagined, or fictitious?). Since the structure of the installation will remain essentially the same for the Havana Biennial, what interests us, in presenting the work again, is to observe how the visitor\u2019s experience of it can be considerably transformed by adapting certain elements, notably by changing the soundtrack and integrating a new series of drawings adapted to the presentation context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SG :<\/strong> Presenting the work again in a radically different context, such as Havana, quickly revealed the paradox of an installation that uses context as medium, but that, at the same time, proposes an environment that offers an \u201cexit\u201d from everyday existence. It raises several questions: Is the experience of everyday life a universal experience despite the variety of contexts? Can everyday life in Montr\u00e9al and Havana be approached unilaterally? The decision to produce a new soundtrack as well as a series of new drawings stems from these reflections. During a preproduction stay in Cuba in the winter of 2014, we were able to visit prospective locations, install the work, record sounds in situ<\/em>, and conduct research for the graphic production. The idea of using the soundtrack to reinforce spatio-temporal blurring remains, but given that the soundscape of Havana differs from that of Montr\u00e9al, the colour of the work, once inhabited by the sounds of the Cuban capital, will inevitably be modulated accordingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n AS : <\/strong>The fact that the sketches accompanying the installation represent potential artworks allows us to imagine multiple variations of the structure or even the concept of the installation. From this perspective, can we envisage that Pi\u00e8ce pour cinq interpr\u00e8tes<\/em> will open the way for a new series, which will be added to Plans d\u2019\u00e9vasion and Mondes mod\u00e8les?<\/p>\n\n\n\n SG : <\/strong>Pi\u00e8ce pour cinq interpr\u00e8tes<\/em> was created with the objective of extending the Plans d\u2019\u00e9vasion series. The variants presented did in fact introduce a subset of studies that in various ways qualify the issues at play in the project. These drawings also offered access to the ideation process, as well as to avenues for interpretations and readings. Their content refers to formal and conceptual sources, including proto-architecture, cosmology based on colours and geometry, and the notion of architecture as body. Presenting various possible proposals\u200a\u2014\u200amostly through drawings\u200a\u2014\u200ais a principle that I regularly apply in my practice. Drawing also allows me to explore other thematic territories related primarily to visionary phenomena (hallucinations, altered states of consciousness, dreams, and urban prophecies, among others), outmoded theories and techniques (optograms and spirit photography, for example), and mnemonic reconstructions (memories, d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu).<\/p>\n\n\n\n ADB :<\/strong> The new series of drawings that St\u00e9phane produced for Havana anchors his installation in Cuba. From drawing to drawing, his \u201cbunker-artwork\u201d wanders Cuba\u2019s varied landscapes (from the city to the countryside, by way of the seashore) and traverses different eras, taking on the appearance\u200a\u2014\u200adepending on the surroundings\u200a\u2014\u200aof a hut, a shelter, a boat, or a small modern house. Inspired by the nineteenth-century Cuban landscape paintings at the National Museum of Fine Arts of Havana, St\u00e9phane also had the idea of introducing his installation into several of these paintings, notably those of Esteban Chartrand and Henri Cleenewerck, which particularly marked his imagination and which he cites in his drawings. Other sources of inspiration for this new series were his experience of Cuban life and the characteristics of the Havana region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SG :<\/strong> Ultimately, this last question makes me wonder whether the protocols of the project\u200a\u2014\u200aparticularly in the context of a partial recasting of its components\u200a\u2014\u200aactually break substantially with the parameters of Escape Plans, which would imply the creation of a new series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Translated from the French by Louise Ashcroft<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/84-ART4-IMG4-IM_Sabet_Gilot_rose_ext30_CMYK_resultat.jpg\")
<\/strong>Pi\u00e8ce pour cinq interpr\u00e8tes, lumi\u00e8re rose et silence<\/em>, 2014, installation view.
Photo : Caroline Boileau & pfoac, courtesy of the artist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/84-ART4-IMG3-IM_Sabet_gilot_pte_pi_rose30_CMYK_resultat.jpg\")
<\/strong>Pi\u00e8ce pour cinq interpr\u00e8tes, lumi\u00e8re rose et silence<\/em>, 2014, installation view.
Photo : Caroline Boileau & pfoac, courtesy of the artist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/84-ART4-IMG6-IM_Sabet_gilot_dessin_toits_Niv300_CMYK_resultat.jpg\")
<\/strong>Depuis le Bacardi<\/em>, 2015.
Photo : courtesy of the artist
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<\/strong>Dans les terres (d\u2019apr\u00e8s Esteban Chartrand)<\/em>
Photo : courtesy of the artist
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/84-ART4-IMG5-IM_Sabet_gilot_dessin_cuba9niv300_CMYK_resultat.jpg\")
<\/strong>Dans les terres (d\u2019apr\u00e8s Esteban Chartrand)<\/em>
Photo : courtesy of the artist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n