In recent projects, guided by her interest in the somatic, artist My-Van Dam has, in turn, mobilized drawing, video, sound, sculpture, assemblage, and movement. By creating and maintaining a space of trust and exchange, this approach allows her to probe her own experience, as well as that of her collaborators, and to examine persistent intergenerational trauma and memory. Her works pay close attention to what lies deep inside the body, seeking not to reveal with precision the past pains that lurk there, but rather to tame them, to make them coexist with the world, and to activate their healing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dam\u2019s continuous use of abstraction prevents her, however, from lapsing into illustration or art therapy in the strict sense. If painful emotions and experiences are evoked, the intention is never to render them completely explicit or intelligible, for she rejects the imperative of communicability. Sober and minimal, her works give prominence to ambiguity, slowness, the indeterminate, and the unspoken. Beyond language, they create a welcoming space in which everyone can coexist with, or even liberate themselves from, the weight of memories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than flatly exposing experiences, making space for a specific testimony, or centring the story around a single person, Dam insists that each contribution is interwoven into a collective body that emerges during the creation and presentation of her projects. The collaborative nature of her approach extends to the public, who give up their passive role, notably through their participation in workshops or community activities, thus reversing the traditional posture of the spectator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A cultural worker based in Tiohti\u00e1:ke\/Montr\u00e9al, Daniel Fiset is interested in the relationships between artistic and pedagogical practices. He holds a doctorate in art history and is a curator at PHI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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