Story
WE MEET
By Rachel Morse
Providence by Guillaume Adjutor Provost is the first POSSIBLE from which everything begins. Providence takes place in the vast understated spaces of the Association des travailleurs grecs de Montréal. Amid the pioneers and trailblazers brought together by circumstance on this cold evening, curious spectators and members of the artistic community gather, new artistic partners greet each other and young artists smile broadly. They arrived late. They searched for the venue until they found the façade on Park Avenue with its large windows, a meeting place for union workers now transformed for the night into a temporary gallery. As we walk through the door the artist is there to greet us and offers us a cup of coffee, setting the tone for an honest, authentic evening.
We first notice the photographs displayed on grey cardboard throughout the space: a selection of Hellenic archives presenting various anecdotal situations, the details of which evade us. In the centre of the room a towering screen showcases various disparate images and landscapes from our daily lives.
At the foot of the screen are two women in sweatpants and sweatshirts. Over a hundred small menial objects are scattered across the space on pedestals – cigarettes, clementine oranges, small statues, gum, a garbage bag… Objects which, combined with the presence of these two women, the video installations and the archives of the workers' association, create a complex and rather unsettling whole.
After about twenty minutes observing the slow gestures of the two women, an aside from a couple in the audience (passing through quickly, desperate for entertainment) is heard. “We don’t understand any of this, we’re leaving.”They are the exception. The vast majority remain and attempt to overcome the heavy silence by reaching out to each other. From whispers to laughs, the artwork reaches its climax by weaving itself into the surrounding discussions. The performers finally speak, reciting in a deliberately dreary voice the heartbreaking words of exhausted homeless women. It then dawns on us that these objects represent the precariousness and fragility of their lives.
Through its hybrid nature and chameleon-like integration (we can distinguish its contours, but the heart of it is tied to its location), this work by Guillaume Adjutor Provost touches on the very core of POSSIBLES: the notion of the encounter. Encounters with the artwork and with people from the art scene; encounters with the Greek community and its building, so subdued it has become transparent. Regardless of our propensity for describing ourselves as open and inclusive, one of our more pressing encounters is with ourselves, as the work encourages us to acknowledge and challenge the privileges which we so often fail to call into question.
Toward the end of the evening a family enters through the back door behind the screen, surprised by the dense crowd of unknown faces in this space that is theirs. As for us, we leave through the front door, our spirits enlivened. Guillaume Adjutor Provost has successfully shaken our convictions, provoking a long and necessary reflection.
