L’Écrin – Back to “Les ponts” by Ileana Hernandez
“Taking apart a world to build a new one from a different perspective—that’s my way of being aware of the different realities around me.”
Could you explain to us the kind of work you do as an artist? What starts and stimulates your thought process?
I like exploring themes like womanhood, nature, and the vulnerability and frailty of being, using textiles and paper as extensions of my body. Through means such as performances, photography, video installations and collages, I’m creating surrealistic pictures that question our relationship with the environment and the very idea of our humanity—of the human species.
For a few years now I’ve also been creating personae that are evolving through interventions and public interactions. They’re feeding on conversations I have and anecdotes I gather with the community.
Taking apart a world to build a new one from a different perspective—that’s my way of being aware of the different realities around me. It allows me to question our social structures, to re-invent them and to find new ways of interacting in this society.
How did your bridge project come into being? What were you seeking?
Before the start of the residency, I was strolling in the neighbourhood, observing the people of Hochelaga walking here and there at different hours of the day, different days of the week. While I was trying to find ways of interacting with the community, with the people, I had this idea of establishing bridges between peoples.
So I decided to create a long-term installation outside L’Imprimerie’s windows, as an excuse to be in the street as much as I could. Each time I worked on my project I dressed with the same clothes, which became my work-clothes. I worked at least twice a week on my installation, so people got to recognize me quite easily. My plan was just to use the hologram paper I had brought back from Mexico—a paper I like a lot. So I put all these hologram papers up on the inside wall to make it colourful, shiny and festive. It was my way of showing everyone these papers. The more the installation progressed, the less abstract it became. A greater number of people were coming to see me, establishing contact. My installation evolved as did my relations with the people of the neighbourhood.
At the end of the residency, I collaborated with L’Imprimerie’s next-door neighbours for a final performance. My installation, to which I think I successfully integrated different esthetical propositions, ended up bringing me to know more about the lives of people in the neighbourhood.
L’Écrin can be both a sculpture and a supporting object; but it can also be a place of experiment for a work in progress. How did you approach that constraint?
My goal with Les ponts (the bridges) was exactly that: to experiment multiple ways of reaching out to people that have nothing to do with the arts, but to do so in an artistic manner. The creation of an outdoor installation that changed constantly because the climate changes constantly, forced me to change my approach, and try different ways of meeting with people. Each time I went to work on the installation, neither the people nor the temperature was the same. Working was always an experiment in itself. The fact that I didn’t need to work to a finished state was never a constraint. I found on the opposite that it forced me to stop being afraid, to open up and take risks, and, more than anything, to enjoy this experience and have fun.
The work you did in L’Écrin was by nature experimental. Do you plan on further exploring the thoughts and ideas that came up during this residency?
Oh, certainly! While I was working on my installation, I was also creating a character I named TOI (YOU). He-She was shown for the first time in a public sound performance in L’Écrin on April 11th 2019. He-She also did an intervention and a sound performance in the CIBL Atelier radio show. I kept a record of all the interventions and experiences that happened during the residency. Now I’m experimenting with audio and visual performances, my voice being filtered through a distortion effect pedal; it will all be a part of this persona. TOI might just have arrived but he-she is growing.
Photos credits : Ileana Hernandez
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