L’Écrin – A look back on “L’été infini” by Marie-Claude Gendron

“It seems that I like to trust the potentialities of plural creation where uncertainty and risk are placed on a pedestal.”

Can you explain a little bit about your work as an artist? What animates your artistic reflection?

Through a multidisciplinary approach to action art, visual arts and media arts, I try to identify the patterns of a community that is constantly being updated in the public, private and intimate spheres. During creative residencies, I adopt the position of a provisional ethnologist and testify to the object of my observations by the dissemination of an artistic corpus.

I approach each project with a contextual and heuristic approach. I often develop a protocol or a performative framework that leads me to work regularly and meticulously with the mediums that I find most appropriate in a given context. I thus accept every situation and its complexities by being porous to what happens, or on the contrary, to what does not happen.

I consider the potential of the archive and ruins through action and space that I sometimes present as “tableaux vivants”. In the idea of gross commemoration, my projects try to highlight the inevitable transformation of the existing one. In recent years, I have been particularly interested in the many possibilities of the book object and the different forms of poetry in action.

Since 2010, I have been developing a neologic “caretor”[1] practice between “care” and “curator”. Following the organization of performative events and self-managed exhibitions, I wondered about my role in these events. I found that I was mainly a host who took care to invite artists that I appreciate and that I wanted to work with, who are from different generations and share different experiences. It seems that I like to trust the potentialities of plural creation where uncertainty and risk are placed on a pedestal.

How did you manage to create your project? What were you trying to explore? Can you tell us a little bit about it?

My proposal for a project for L’Écrin consists in the presentation and implementation of selected excerpts from Madame Nielsen’s novel L’Été infini. The objective is to elaborate a visual narrative composed of papers, objects, writing and luminous devices from different extracts of the novel. Since the residency is of a duration of 12 weeks, I separated said novel of 168 pages into 12 sections of 14 pages.

Every week, since February 1st, I read the 14 pages over and over again and I write my impressions on various passages in the book. When L’imprimerie was open, I also took advantage of the accessibility of the spaces and equipment at my disposal to develop a work that I could not necessarily do in my small workshop at home. Once in the space of L’Écrin, I developed a representative installation of the extract with different materials such as fabric, paper and various objects (lock, broken glass, containers, rocks, etc.)

I chose the novel L’Été infini for several reasons. What interested me most was the breakdown of the chronological structure as well as the temporality of the story. This led me to reuse objects or devices from the first week to the fourth, when the story brings us back to the temporality of the excerpt from the first week. The author (3) of the novel develops a writing that flows like a river. The descriptions of places and atmospheres are convoluted, yet the sentences are written like a breath. In fact, the author wrote the story only in two months. Another reason why I chose this novel is that I rarely read a book that takes me to this point where I literally experience the states and emotions of the character. After reading, I wanted to materialize the story in a way.

The sculptural space of L’Écrin seemed to be like an interesting playground to be experimenting with different ways of working with paper and putting it in a space so that the material could “live” by itself. For instance, I cut flowers made by William Morris (4) and hung them by a thread. The heat from the radiator in the display case made the paper flowers turn. It is this kind of surprise that occurs during heuristic design that interests me. I like the idea that objects gain autonomy.

“I rarely read a book that takes me to this point where I literally experience the states and emotions of the character”

L’Écrin is both a sculpture and support object, but it is also a space to experiment. It is not a space to present finished work. How did you work with this constraint?

To materialize and bring the novel “alive,” I made it a rule to come once a week at L’Écrin to carry out a process and evolutionary installation. The space is absolutely not neutral by its color and its singular architecture. So I tried to incorporate color into the installation compositions and play with the imposed structure of space. Moreover, the effect of the window destabilized me a little. As I often use a lot of objects, clothes and fabrics in my installations, I had to think about the space to avoid creating a store window effect. I also intervened directly on the walls by writing the dates of my visits. These same walls were covered with architectural drawings on carbon prints.

Reading the novel simultaneously also allowed me to leave the installation “unfinished” or “unresolved.” Obviously, I was unable to leave the space and be satisfied with what was presented.Because I knew it would change the following week, I was sort of working in a state of “emergency”. This led me to make choices more quickly without necessarily going through several stages of doubts. When I carry out a project, I inevitably go through a long reflexive and contemplative stage. During the interventions in L’Écrin, the work was more direct. I don’t appreciate one way of working more than the other. I think the two states of creation — the very slow, reflexive, and precise and the very spontaneous, fast and crude — cohabit and exist together in my practice. I think the residency at L’Écrin allowed me to understand that.

Your work at L’Écrin was mostly experimental. Will you pursue some of the thoughts that have arisen in this process?

Certainly. For some time now, I have been wanting to work on monumental portable sculptures and present them in a performative context. That is, by manipulating them in a public space.

Without being portable, I liked to consider the space of L’Écrin as a sculptural object with multiple possibilities, in continuous transformation.

I enjoyed writing an evocative presentation of the project without it being completely descriptive. Writing and poetry is intrinsically linked to my practice. However, it is rare for me to present my writing in the context of a visual arts exhibition. Following this project, I would like to explore different ways of disseminating my writing.

To read the text (in French), click here.

(1) I defined this term in 2019 with the project “Faute de moyens, on aura au mieux les uns, les unes et tous les autres” presented at GHAME & DAFE and which involved an ad hoc collective of 15 artists..
(2) Read also: Camille Richard’s excellent article on her interpretation of the role of “careter”. Online: Faute de moyens, on aura au mieux les uns, les unes et tous les autres
(3) The author Madame Nielsen identifies herself as the character of the gracious young boy who will become an old woman writer, that is to say herself.
(4) William Morris is a textile designer, printer, writer, poet, lecturer, painter, draftsman and British architect from London born in 1834.

Photo credit : Marie-Claude Gendron

© L’imprimerie, centre d’artistes, 2024