Les bras croisés
You are cordially invited to attend the public vernissage at the
Salle Alec et Gérard Pelletier on March 30th.
From 5 to 7 – Welcome to one and all – Artists’ presentation at 5:30 p.m.
D’arts et de rêves is proud to present
this first interdisciplinary residence made possible
thanks to the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.
Introduction…
Three artists meet: one performs a contemporary circus act from which a visual artist and a writer must draw inspiration to create their own work of art.
These three women had never met before March 1, 2018, but had nonetheless agreed to believe and participate in the D’Arts et de rêves interdisciplinary residency project–Les bras croisés, quite a challenge indeed.
What is the career path of these artists? What is their artistic approach?
In this newsletter, you will learn about Jinny Jessica Jacinto, contemporary circus arts, Muriel Faille, visual arts, and Caroline Louisseize, literary arts.
Our three artists
Jinny Jessica Jacinto
Jinny Jessica Jacinto is a passionate and fascinating woman. After training at the National Circus School of Montreal, she pursued her career at the Cirque du Soleil. She was one of the four contortionists in the New Experience, Fascination, and Saltimbanco shows that toured North America, Asia, and Europe. In addition, Jinny worked on other Cirque du Soleil productions, including Zulu Time with Robert Lepage and Franco Dragone.
Jinny has participated in numerous stage productions in Canada and Europe of which The Royal Variety Performance in the Presence of Queen Elizabeth II in London, England (1995), a Tribute to Jean Chrétien in Toronto, Ontario (2003), the Gala Dinner in the presence of Prince Philip at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England (2004)… She has also participated in film and television productions, and performed at sea for Cirque du Soleil as part of the Celebrity Cruises.
Since 1997, Jinny has had a successful career as a solo artist. She loves sharing her experience in teaching, coaching and assisting in the creation of new productions.
In the early 2000s, Jinny won a scholarship from the Conseil des arts et des lettres (CALQ), which enabled her to create the act she will be presenting to us on March 30, an act that has already been acclaimed around the world.
It will be the first time that the Salle Alec and Gérard Pelletier is host to a circus performer! So come see Jinny perform, live; we promise you a magical moment, strong in emotions, that you won’t want to forget…
Muriel Faille
The people around here who have met Muriel Faille know that she has made quite a name for herself, combining her talents as a painter, engraver, and publisher.
Let’s see what her artistic path has been: studies in fine arts (bachelor’s degree in 1988) and graphic arts (certificate in 1990) at the Université du Québec à Montréal, conferences, “Artist’s book” workshops, curator, lecturer at the Université de Sherbrooke, jury member for arts competitions, mentoring, and since 2003 creation of the yearly artistic happening Le Champ de Mauve held in the Eastern Townships–and the list goes on and on…
In 2005, Muriel was awarded the St-Denys Garneau International Prize for producing and distributing artist’s books throughout Quebec and the Maritimes during 28 years. She was also awarded the Mention Distinction from the Musée des Beaux-Arts de St-Hilaire (2007), Laureate and Collection of the Thomas Moore Institute, Montréal (2005), 1st prize at the Symposium d’Iberville, Iberville (2001), et 1st prize at the Symposium de Granby, Granby (1999). In addition, many of Muriel’s works have been added to public collections.
In fact, Muriel has never really been idle: she exhibits solo or contributes to group exhibitions nearly every year. This year will be particularly busy for Muriel with this interdisciplinary project, an exhibition of etchings at the Sutton Art Plus Gallery in May, the Tour des Arts in July, Le Champ de Mauve in September and a solo exhibition at the Galerie Art Plus in October , whew!
Curious as to what her work looks like? Go to her web site, murielfaille.com, which shows photos of some of her work over the years, you will probably be charmed by La Traversée des Mondes (2017), De l’air, de la terre, de l’Être (2017), Fragments d’éternité (2015), or Nature première (2014)…
Caroline Louisseize
Caroline Louisseize is a woman that seems enthralled by words, she is our writer in residence for the first D’Arts et de rêves interdisciplinary project.
Our writer has chosen to study in fields related to words, music–piano, and the sound of words. She is currently studying linguistics as it applies to the study of French grammar at Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), a short program that was preceded by literary studies at the bachelor’s level. In college, Caroline became interested in Documentation Techniques (2002-2005) after completing an Arts et lettres, Profile “Creative Writing” program at Cégep du Vieux Montréal (1997-1999).
Her professional career is in perfect synchronicity with her academic career: she has written Répliques (2016) and Aura (2013) published by Poètes de brousse; Le siège propre (2003) published by Triptyque; and she authors cinema chronicles in Panorama-cinéma. Besides being a proficient author, Caroline works as a Documentalist at the National Theater School of Canada.
Our writer-in-residence has received several honors: recipient of the 2017 Geneviève-Amyot Prize for the unpublished work “Tu vois”; twice a CALQ fellow (Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec–2014, 2015); finalist in the Prix des collégiens en poésie (2013) for “Aura”, her second collection of poetry; as well as finalist in the Critères intercollegiate competition (literature) (1999).
To discover Caroline’s writing, continue reading this newsletter as you will soon uncover a text where she describes her artistic approach. It’s almost mesmerizing! We can already imagine the pleasure we will have when listening to her read her latest creation at the March 30 vernissage.
Their artistic approach
Photo : Bruno Berthelet
Jinny Jessica Jacinto
Jinny likes to be in tune with that which surrounds her; her main sources of inspiration are music, images and, texts, although everything in her daily life amazes her.
When Jinny hears music that touches her, she sees movement. If she feels creative, she plays this music and lets her body guide her movements. Her choreographies are filmed because if the visual artist can see her work evolve and the writer can re-read her words, Jinny can not see herself moving: so first comes the music, then the movements, then she steps back to analyze her performance, she identifies what makes it work or not and what it is she particularly liked which she then dances again… All these moments of creation are captured on film because it is the repetition, the viewing, the analysis, the repetition, the modifications, the additions, and starting over again which are for her the equivalent of “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, and try again”.
When Jinny was younger, her creations were designed to ensure truly technical performances, presentations that left her audience surprised, amazed, astonished… the feedback she sought and undeniably received was always a definite “wow!”.
Then with time, motherhood, and life experience… her body changed. Jinny nevertheless continued to create and to perform, but consciously chose to focus more on feeling, on emotion. Those who have the pleasure of seeing her perform today do not spontaneously say “wow!”. They rather find themselves silent, admiring, dumbfounded at the emotion they have witnessed and that which they feel.
To keep her mind creative and open to all possibilities, Jinny constantly needs to nourish her mind, to take time for herself, to meditate, to surround herself with the people she loves–her children, her partner, her family, her friends…
Jinny also hopes that Les bras croisés, this interdisciplinary residency project, will nourish her by allowing her in turn to be inspired by the work of the two artists in residence–visual arts and literary arts.
What would Jinny wish for? To one day experience a D’Arts et de rêves residence where she could devote herself to a project of her choice…
Muriel Faille
Muriel Faille describes her artistic approach (murielfaille.com) :
Although my approach is inspired by my environment, it nonetheless challenges philosophy and the psyche. It suggests a communication from the visible to the invisible, questions the great rhythms of the universe by games of transparency and opacity, by the perspective and nature of light.
Starting from a concrete reality, my research questions other realities, other universes. Moments where the being of flesh imprisons the soul at the sight of material things, in order to give way to the mysteries that hide behind appearances.
I draw and I paint on canvas, skin, and wood, first small and then bigger, to verify the grain of life and the intimacy of things. This relationship of intimacy reveals an inscription of being. I try to see the elusive in all matter and forms, the analogical relationship of the human with nature, the relationship of the hidden which is everything…
Hence I have the profound certainty of communicating with something real, otherwise real. This activity suggests the presence of absence.
My works reveals this journey where life is born to telluric and cosmic forces and an atmosphere that breathes heaven and earth. I thus touch the greatness and fragility of our nature within the reach of a world.
Caroline Louisseize
Caroline Louisseize sent us a text that we chose to publish as is: :
I am uncomfortable talking about my approach and reducing it into words, even if, without disclosing too many keys, it can be interesting to know how I work… In fact I like it when the reader is somehow virgin in front of my writing. I like to address the raw intelligence. I like the reader to feel a rush of images, of sensations, and irrationality to destabilize him, touch him without him being able to explain it necessarily at first sight. I do not like to say everything. I like to suggest. I like to play.
I also like to use language, to handle it the same as a craftsman (or the artist) would his material. I like to choose the right word, to cut the verses, to create effects of meaning, to play with the calligraphy, to make links with other languages, to make lexical correspondences (in period of creation I draw up tables, graphs, lists of words), particular style effects to serve the purpose. Somehow I tinker with my poems, my writings.
I like to play as I write, and yet writing is anchored in me as an essential means of expression. I received my first typewriter when I was in kindergarten. I have more or less been writing since the day I learned to write.
In my writings I speak mainly about cohabitation, adaptation, learning, life with oneself and with others. It’s vast, I know, probably not very original said like that. Every book surprises me. I also talk a lot about the body, in relation to its environment, in relation to living beings, illness, places, time, and even ghosts. I believe in ghosts. I also try to catch a little of the inexplicable. I grew up with a lot of inexplicable.
I write just as I am about to fall asleep. I write while walking, to find the right rhythm. I write from memory, or else I dash on the page like a savage. I correct, I correct, I correct. For one writing day, there is, as a rule, the equivalent of several months of revision.
I am coquettish. The choice of words is essential.
Creating surprising and strange effects in the reader is also important. To tell him very concrete and very human things (experienced), but transformed in the language of the imagination, dreams, memories.
There is also most probably the influence of music. Playing the piano takes me out of work that is too cerebral, it plunges me back into my body. Music plays a big role in the development of verse, or even in prose. It is necessary for the rhythm and the melody of the text to be natural, to flow easily, for the verse to remains hooked, that it “fits” in my ear, that I can say it aloud without trashing it.
I also read a lot. When I am on a project, I repatriate all my inspirations into a physical place, I look them over again and again, I transcend into a state of openness, I discover other books, films, works of art of all sorts dealing with my subject, that can enrich my project from near or far.
And I am always writing. I write a lot more than what matters. I write a journal, I write tons of works in progress. I waste tons of pages. I write as I breathe, I write to breathe. To make room for what transcends me, what I do not quite understand and yet makes me immerse myself in the creative exploration of the human condition.
In short, I write out of curiosity.
Midway there, how are our two artists in residence doing…
Two weeks after the beginning of the interdisciplinary residency project (March 16th), we went to visit Muriel and Caroline at 57, rue Principale Nord.
How have they been experiencing this project, what has been their approach following the imposed subject, namely the contemporary circus act presented by Jinny Jessica Jacinto on March 2nd?
Muriel Faille invites us into her small studio at the D’Arts et de rêves residence, where she has been since the beginning of the month, creating almost every day. Muriel tells us that fate has been on her side since Jinny’s act, because she saw a link between Jinny’s performance and her own approach and the themes she likes to address when she creates. She has managed to draw this resonance into her world, embrace it and express it in many ways. Muriel pays much attention to the materials she uses and chose them carefully to express what is needed for this “crossing of the worlds”. How does a local artist living in the countryside experience a residence in Sutton? Muriel says she enjoys coming to work in this small studio that gives her a view of the mountain, a view different from that of her own studio, the mountain that accompanying her in her work. Creating in a small space has also had a significant impact, that of creating intimacy, her artwork is thus impregnated. Muriel works diligently and with passion to ensure this resonance shows through her work. She trusts that with time she will have uncovered all that needs to be expressed and she believes she will be able to deliver the fruit of her labour on March 30th. Even though the small studio is alive with Muriel’s work, bubbling with creativity, yet in a very serene way. We saw some real treasures that you will also enjoy discovering during the vernissage.
Caroline Louisseize had already written to us (on March 13th) to let us know how she was progressing with respect to the proposed challenge…
As artist in residence, I have been writing non-stop. In a way that does not tolerate any censorship. Accordingly there is a lot of material on my pages that will not make the final cut.
For the latter, I was inspired by Jinny Jacinto’s act, I wrote some impressions, words, themes, textures, colors, in my notebook, and I copied these words, I did a kind of montage that I posted in the residence. I refer to it and I build on it.
My first week was a week of plenty. I posted a lot of things on the walls. Because of the big windows, I even felt as if I were on a stage. The second week (with the curtains and being bedridden), everything settled, as in a snowglobe, and I began to make connections between all these words, thinking about the topic of contagion, just and ironically , finding central themes to explore, interesting pictures to guide me.
When we met her a few days later, Caroline shared with us her last few days… She showed us her notebook to which she constantly adds notes, she is inhabited by this project, she thinks about it constantly. In addition, she has been writing her “Sutton’s diaries” which record her impressions, reflections, journey, discoveries… Prose had been the focus of her writing; she told us that this morning however, she had written a poem, a portrait. It was a discovery for her, she adds; she was quite happy with the result. Maybe this portrait in an indication of what she will reveal at the vernissage, to be continued…