How can political questioning be applied to the weak points of democracy? What kind of democracy would emerge from this invitation to Fran\u00e7ois Lemieux by Mus\u00e9e d\u2019art contemporain des Laurentides to use as tools a trailer, a plywood agora (Une place id\u00e9ale<\/em>, Alexandre David), and the sanctuary of art and its institutions? MACLA\u2019s invitation to the artist was transformed into a collective project resulting in two days of performances, videos, and discussions\u200a\u2014\u200aone day in Saint-J\u00e9r\u00f4me and the other in Gatineau. Invited to consider the question of municipal elections, the artists and authors involved tackled the issue head on by re-examining the forms that art gives to politics and its institutional rules: No comment in response to your question<\/em>\u200a\u2014\u200acontrary to expectation, we\u2019ll forge ahead<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Action indirecte collective seems to have taken sides with destituent power, a \u201cmovement of continuous subtraction\u2026 from all policies that overshadow the sensory world.\u201d Shunning politics and established art practices, Lemieux focuses on what emerges from the ordinary, inappropriate, and powerful. The collective allies itself with the actions of street nurses who, from a harm-reduction perspective and tired of waiting for the authorities to respond to the opioid crisis, set up a supervised injection site in an Ottawa park. Instead of the ideal of mobility that would take us to new heights, Lemieux proposes a political approach rooted in the here and now without the need for plans or authorization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Echoing the event\u2019s stance of collaboration and erasure, Dorian Nuskind-Oder and Simon Grenier-Poirier harnessed the choreographic potential of table tennis, inviting two professional players to keep the ball in play for as long as possible (Speed Glue<\/em>). Competition, which drives parliamentary debate as well as the endless jousting of capitalism, gives way to exchange in a performance without a winner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The variable geometry organization Journ\u00e9e sans culture occupies the installation Une place id\u00e9ale<\/em> to address the relationship between artists and gentrification (#ownit<\/em>). Interweaving whispered fiction and open discussion, the intervention blurs the image of artists as \u201cemancipatory architects\u201d by questioning their function in a social process of dispossession and speculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated from the French by Louise Ashcroft<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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