Performative Monument
In the Montreal city area, the transportation routes were built in close correlation with the natural obstacles of the territory; Lachine rapids, St-Jacques cliff, St-Pierre river, etc. The topology of Montreal has thus determined the human ingeneered routes of goods transportion, from deep America to Europe and vice versa. But long before the arrival of the first settlers, rapids and rivers were the key to nomadism among Aboriginal peoples and then became a culmination of the fur trade network. As part of this project, I am particularly interested in the nomadic way of life of the first nations of the territory and the many displacements that individuals make in their everyday lives and, on the other hand, the goods that serve their subsistence. The empty cart taken in different contexts can be a symbol of the desires fulfilled by consumption but also evokes one's basic needs and can refer naturally to the mobile habitat of a homeless person and the idea of nomadism.
Performative Monument: The Costume
In order to launch my project "Performative Monuments" I invited the public to join me at Dare-Dare's trailer on Saturday, July 23, 2 pm - 5pm, to participate in the making of the outfit I was wearing during my walks in the Southwest of Montreal. Dressed in beige, I formed with a shopping cart a nomadic monument with which I explored the historical territory marked by the transportation routes of commodities through the fur trade and the rise of industrialization in the same territory.
The collective production of a costume was an opportunity to think about the changing and subjective nature of individual and collective identities. The costume became a dialogue between the different social classes, genders and cultures that have evolved on the territory of Montreal.
The making of the costume, Image: Nicole Panneton
Performative Monument: The Lachine Rapids
What lies beneath the concrete of the city? What relationship do we maintain with our territory? Looking at old maps of Montreal, I instinctively wanted to compare with a current map, locating familiar places; shorelines, waterways, islands, escarpments. I then worked to locate on the maps the different routes used by Europeans in the seventeenth century for developing the fur trade with first nations, who would guide newcomers along the natural routes of the territory they already knew for a long time. St. Pierre River used as a portage and canoe route for linking East to West Island of Montreal in order to by pass the Lachine Rapids, was transformed into a sewer. Not gone, this forgotten river still flows, surprisingly, having been covered ten years after the construction of Lachine Canal (1825), replacing the streams in its freight route function. Indeed, when comparing the route of the river to the Lachine Canal, we can establish the geographical similarity.
The Canal To The East, As If It Was the river
I feel attracted to canoe and walking journeys first experienced by first nations and the voyageurs involved in the fur trade, a way of traveling so respectful of nature. As a performance artist, I imagine the physical involvment that represents a crossing of several days at 15 hours per day. The comfort that dominates my lifestyle, the almost instant access to any resource from around the world seems to me more dangerous than jumping the rapids. To commemorate the importance of rivers in our life, to think about their transformation and those who have crossed and sometimes gave their lives, I intend to dedicate the first out of three weeks of walking with a shopping cart to water and Men. For each trip, I wish to be accompanied by one or more companion(s).
Images: Jonathan M Roy
The Canal To The West, As If It Was the river
Images: Jonathan M Roy
Performative Monument: The Gathering
Dressed in beige, we lead the shopping cart to its definitive transformation, revealing on the way layers of identity linked to the territory and landscape of the Lachine Canal and St-Henri neighbourhood before erecting it on the pedestal of a missing statue.
Images: Jonathan M Roy
