printemps CUBEcois

PRINTEMPS CUBECOIS : archive, installation

4 metres x 5 metres x 5 metres
digital print, 49 archived banners, video, wood
2016
FR
« En voyant ton travail, je comprends l’importance des archives. Pas comme une mémoire poussiéreuse destinée à être étudiée dans 20 ans mais comme quelque chose de vivant qui nourrit la réflexion et l’action. Moi qui suis historienne, prof d’histoire etc, ça me fait penser le rapport à l’histoire autrement. Ce que tu as fait est inspirant pour l’action et la projection dans le futur. L’idée de safe space est excellente, et ça fonctionne vraiment. On s’y sent bien. Tu devrais proposer ton exposition pour l’animation de groupes de militants. Il y aurait quelque chose à réfléchir vraiment. En lisant ta note d’intention, j’ai pris conscience du rapport à la mélancolie ou à la nostalgie qu’aurait pu inspirer ton travail. Et au contraire ça rend joyeux et confiant. C’est vraiment réussi sur le plan esthétique. J’aime ta fresque. Je regrette de ne pas avoir eu le temps de l’explorer davantage avec les enfants. Là aussi c’est un super matériau pour animer une discussion sur la lutte sociale, la violence, la démocratie, etc ( la prof en moi se réveille et voit tout le potentiel à exploiter dans ton travail). Je rêverais de voir ce cube exposé sur la place des arts en plein festival !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ca frappe l’oeil ! » — Judith R.
EN
While viewing your work, I understand the importance of archives. Not like a dusty memory destined to be studied in 20 years, but like something living, something that nourishes reflection and action. As a historian, history teacher, etc., it makes me think of history in a different way. What you have done inspires action and projects forward into the future. The idea of a safe space is excellent and it really works. We feel good inside the cube. You should offer your installation for activist group workshops. It offers many things to really think about. While reading your artist statement, I became aware of the melancholy or the nostalgia that your work could have inspired. But on the contrary, it inspires happiness, confidance. It really succeeds esthetically. I love your fresco. I regret not having sufficient time to explore it more closely with the kids. That too is superb material to conduct a discussion about social struggles, violence, democracy, etc. (the teacher in me awakens and sees the potential harness from your work.) I would wish to see the cube on exhibit at Place des arts during the festival season!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is striking!” — Judith R.
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Artist Statement / Démarche artistique :
EN

The massive CUBE explores the activation of an archive created by David Widgington during his MA Media Studies research-creation project at Concordia University. 40 protest banners (all previously used within demonstrations) envelope the inside and outside of the cube. A doorway gives access inside the CUBE to the « pièce de résistance » within. The mural-size protest scene collage uses a sampling of imagery taken from the Artéfacts d’un Printemps québécois Archive (its posters, banners, protest signs, actions, stencils, videos) that are printed/projected onto sewn strips of canvas. The scene is my own retelling — as a striking student at the time — of the 2012 student-led oppositional movement. It is an attempt at self-representation, which is key to building upon a movement’s own oppositional cultural heritage.The « Printemps CUBEcois » embodies the purpose for the Artéfacts Archive and its potential motivational role on protest movement choreographies in Québec and elsewhere. It is a non-nostalgic activation of an archive that seeks to nurture the oppositional consciousness that was so tenacious in 2012. The CUBE’s interior represents a safe space within which activists can meet, speak freely and find the strength necessary for collective acts of resistance and dissent.

David argues that oppositional consciousness during the debriefing period is better nourished when oppositional cultural artefacts are present. The artefacts encourage the review past actions, the discussion of evolving issues and the advancement of arguments. The CUBE provides a reaggregational gathering space for activists to reinforce solidarity, to build collective confidence and, ultimately, to consider future oppositional performance.

Ideally, the oppositional cultural heritage, activated via the « Printemps CUBEcois », will help link the debriefing phase of the Maple Spring with current/upcoming battles against austerity. As a result, activists will be able to better confront the abuses of neoliberal capitalism and resist its systematic oppression.

FR
Le CUBE explore la mise en action d’une archive créée dans le cadre de la maîtrise de David Widgington en Études des médias au Département de communications à l’Université Concordia. Quarante bannières contestataires (toutes utilisées dans des manifestations) recouvrent l’extérieur et l’intérieur du CUBE. Une porte d’entrée donne accès à la « pièce de résistance » de la grandeur d’une muraille : la gigantesque bannière « Ne rien lâcher ». Cette bannière spécialement conçue met en scène une manifestation représentative du Printemps québécois en utilisant un échantillonnage d’artéfacts visuels (images d’affiches, de bannières, de pancartes, d’actions, de pochoirs, de vidéos, etc…) provenant de l’Archive d’artéfacts d’un Printemps québécois, le tout étant imprimé sur des bandes de canevas cousues ensemble.

La scène est le récit de l’artiste — en tant qu’étudiant en grève à l’époque — du mouvement contestataire de 2012. Il s’agit d’une tentative d’autoreprésentation, un élément-clé pour bâtir l’héritage culturel d’un mouvement contestataire. Le CUBE incarne l’objectif de l’Archive d’artéfacts dans son rôle d’agitateur potentiel pour les chorégraphies futures des mouvements de protestation au Québec et ailleurs.
Ces installation et scénographie permettent une mise en action non-nostalgique d’une archive qui cherche à nourrir la conscience contestataire, si tenace en 2012, et en gestation pour les luttes à venir. L’intérieur du CUBE constitue ainsi un « safe space » où des activistEs peuvent se rencontrer, parler ouvertement et rechercher une force collective qui pourrait mener vers des actions de résistance futures.

Le « Printemps CUBEcois » sert d’espace de ré-agrégation et de compte-rendu pour se réunir, pour interroger ensemble nos actions, stratégies, tactiques, etc. Le but visé est de renforcer la solidarité et de bâtir une confiance collective, tout en se (re)familiarisant avec la performance militante antérieure. David Widgington soutient que la conscience contestataire est mieux nourrie lorsque des artéfacts culturels contestataires sont présents et accessibles. Les artéfacts encouragent la reconsidération des actions, la discussion des enjeux, l’avancement des arguments et, ultimement, la considération d’actions futures.

Idéalement, l’héritage culturel contestataire ainsi mis en place par l’entremise du « Printemps CUBEcois » aidera à boucler la boucle entre le Printemps érable de 2012 et les luttes actuelles contre l’austérité. En conséquance, les militantEs serons plus compétentEs pour confronter les abus du capitalisme néolibéral et pour résister à son oppression systématique.

Pièce de résistence

PIÈCE DE RÉSISTENCE : collage, banner/banderole, digital print/impression numérique

396 cm x 518 cm

digital print, sewn cotton canvas, grommets

2014

« Pièce de résistence » is a (re)mediation of visual artefacts taken from the Artéfacts d’un Printemps québécois Archive. The imagery for the collage was pilfered from the archive’s posters, banners, protest signs, videos, stencils, etc.  The scene is a retelling of protest during Québec’s 2012 student strike or “Printemps québécois”. It lasted six months and unseeted the province’s premier during the election that followed. The banner honours the protesters while denigrating the state repression that became commonplace during the protests. The collage’s self-representation and recognition is key to building a movement’s own oppositional cultural heritage.

The banner was made as one of the interior walls within the Printemps CUBEcois installation. It is a digital collage of images printed on four strips of 10 oz canvas. Each vertical strips was printed on 10-ounce canvas.

The « Ne rien lâcher » collage is an expression of archival activation. To include as many archival elements as possible, three slideshows of banners, protest signs and videos were projected into the protest scene. On the lower left are a group of people holding a protest banner which is blank and upon which a slideshow of banners from the Artéfacts Archive are screened. Near the bottom centre is an activist carrying a blank protest sign, which changes every five seconds with a newly projected protest sign. On the lowernright side of the banner is an individual figure looking into a blank computer screen which comes to life with archived videos and their with sound on.  Viewers were drawn into the cube by the audio that seeped through the forty protest banners that gave the cube voice with their slogans and indignation. The inside of the cube felt like a safe space to linger and witness one’s oppositional cultural heritage.

The ritualistic behaviour of protest performance binds performers together: chanting slogans, confronting police, carrying protest signs, locking arms to hold a position, etc. and wearing ritualistic attire: black clothing, the red square, exuberant costumes, face paint, etc. Stuart Hall writes, in relation to fan performance at football matches, that “banners and slogans, with faces and bodies painted in certain colours or inscribed with certain symbols, can also be thought of as like a ‘language’ — in so far as it is a symbolic practice which gives meaning or expression to the idea of belonging”. The symbols chosen to construct the protest scene collage come from artefacts used during the Printemps québécois are themselves a shared oppositional language with meaning to the protest movement. Its visual vocabulary is easily read by anyone who “belong” to the protest movement during the 2012 strike.

CARTES D’ÉCHANGE / TRADING CARDS : archive, digital print/impression numérique

 

Here is a collection of 66 trading cards I created using imagery from the Artéfacts d’un printemps québécois Archive. The archive stored digital imagery as protest artifacts from Québec’s 6-month student strike in 2012. The cards’ role is to nourish an affective link between traders who participated in the strike to encourage discussions around oppositional cultural heritage. The Printemps Érable (or Maple Spring) was a historic period of protest for the student movement that had a significant impact on Québec society. Once the strike was over, the debriefing phase lasted years and these “Reaggregational Cards” were created to boost a shared debriefing process. The cards were designed to help uplift an activist’s oppositional consciousness that flourished during the strike’s more than 600 demonstrations, actions, occupations, with the idea that they will be better prepared for the struggles ahead.