Faut-il se couper la langue?

(Must we cut out our tongues?)

Project and exhibition

Centre d’art actuel Skol (Montreal)

2013

_{Video documentation and excerpts from the closing event}

In 1970, the National Film Board of Canada released the documentary Faut-il se couper l’oreille? by Jacques Giraldeau, which followed the debates of a handful of artists concerning their role in society. A quarter-century later, many Quebec artists embrace the political in their practice, but suppress it in their discourse. Faut-il se couper la langue? works with interviews, textual analyses of artists’ approaches, and public discussions to track the political in the discourse of up-and-coming artists, tracing the limits—unconscious and not—that we place on our practices and our speech.

The project aimed, among other things, to collaborate with present emerging artists to understand their motivations and their political engagement or disengagement. Attempts to collectively organize the closing event brought to the surface the tensions present in the arts community between desire for political engagement, fears and individualism.

Presented at Centre d’art actuel Skol ↗ (Montreal).

The artists participating in the project were Mathieu Jacques, Clément de Gaulejac, Michelle Lacombe, Sophie Castonguay, Steve Giasson, Andrée-Anne Dupuis-Bourret and Hugo Nadeau.

Exhibition text:
Aggravating the political ↘
by Érik Bordeleau.

Published article about the project:
Des artistes, leurs discours et le politique ↘
by Marie-Ève Charron, Le Devoir.