396 x 534 x 762

 

       
     

Proposal

   
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  In this lack of containment lies a danger but also a power
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Installation view of "In this lack of containment lies a danger but also a power" Photo: Guy L'Heureux

 

Rebecca Duclos' project entitled Proposal emerged from a short-term research residency that was focused on the newly-processed archives at the Montreal artist-run gallery Skol. Drawing from material included as part of various artist proposals that had been submitted to the gallery during the past two decades, an audio piece was launched as part of Skol's 27th anniversary exhibition in November 2011.

Below is the accompanying wall text for In this lack of containment lies a danger but also a power (audio, 2011, 5' 30"). Listen to the recording via Soundcloud,  (5' 30")

I am interested as much in what is said as what is not said within the traditional formulary of a gallery proposal. As I moved through file box after file box in the Skol archives, I was looking for proposals which shifted away from the traditional formality that is expected from an artist's exhibition application. What kind of lexicon might be used to articulate the more oblique and often intuitive moments that initiate or sustain an artist's ideas? How do they address the complex and processual emergence of projects? How do they acknowledge (if they do) the complex and legitimate potential that forces such as chance, synchronicity, association, and luck have upon their research and their practice? Are these forces acknowledged? Named? Narrativized?

In the same way that certain proposals "spoke" to me, I invited actors to animate Skol's archives by speaking to the visitor. The voices heard on the recording read excerpts from eight different project proposals submitted to the gallery between 1996-2011.

Artist proposals in order of appearance:

Nicolas Baier (1999)
Isabelle Laverdière (1996)
Shelia Nadimi and Miranda Whall (1997)
Josée Corriveau (1999)
Martin Dufrasne (2001)
Iwona Majdan (1999)
Joceline Chabot (1995)
Adriana Disman (2011)

An enormous thank you to actors:

Hubert Alain, Aude Barras, Michelle Cohen, Paige Halam-Andres, Ilana Hanukov, Flora Dunster, Annie Rose Maarleveld, Vincent Marquis, Sinead Petrasek, Emeline Vidal

   
     
     
     
 
     
     
     
     
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