Caméraroman

(Cameropera)

Intervention in public space and video installation

Galerie de l’UQAM (Montréal)

2011

_{Extraits des scènes 6 et 10}

Ten inconspicuous interventions were carried out in Montreal public spaces in the winter of 2010. Reprising scenes from ten romantic comedies (Bridget Jones’s Diary, Pretty Woman, Dirty Dancing…), they recreated an archetypal narrative of the genre (the forlorn single, the antagonistic encounter, the bond that develops, the break-up for the wrong reason, etc.). Performed by non-actors without props or glitz, and transposed into ordinary public spaces (subway, public square, lobbies), the performances played upon the slippage between reality and its representations.

The presence of surveillance cameras was something that all the spaces selected for the performances had in common. Invoking the freedom of access to information, the following part of the project consisted of demanding copies of the videotapes. The point was to document the interventions but, above all, the flaws and inconsistencies of video surveillance regulations.

The exhibition presented at Galerie de l’UQAM in the fall of 2011 included ten monitors—one for each scene—with the recurrent appearance of black screens serving as testimony of the refusals by institutions. Written documentation comprising the performance scenarios, the letters of request, and institutions’ responses capped off the installation.

Présenté à la Galerie de l’UQAM à l’automne 2011.

Performers: Marianne Pon-Layus (Molly), Kim Lagaude (Paul), Paul Beneteau, Jeanne Bourgoin, Vincent Brault, Edith Brunette, Marie-Ève Émond, David Manseau, Ivan Lassère, Arkadi Lavoie-Lachapelle, Catherine Plaisance, and Marion Prével.

Published article about the project:
Éloquentes images absent ↘
by Jérôme Delgado, Le Devoir.