Tag: Marie-Claude Grendon

Well, our age is one of those fires whose unbearable burning will undoubtedly reduce many works to ashes! But for those that remain, their metal will be intact […] One can no doubt wish, and I wish it too, for a softer flame, a respite, a stopover conducive to daydreaming.
~The Artist and His Time (lecture), Albert Camus, 1957.

With the participation of fire-keepers:
Alexis Bellavance
Laurence Beaudoin-Morin
Catherine Bodmer
Caroline Boileau
janick burn
Sylvie Cotton
Anne Florentiny
Pierre Gauvin
Léo Gaudreault
Stéphane Gilot
stvn Girard
Katherine-Josée Gervais
k.g. Guttman
Michelle Lacombe
Frédérique Laliberté
arkadi lavoie lachapelle
Julie-Isabelle Laurin
Helena Martin Franco
Diyar Mayil
Rhonda Meier
François Morelli
Florencia Sosa Rey
François Rioux
Jacqueline Van De Geer
Stephanie Nuckle

OPEN FIRE | FEU OUVERT is a furtive, political, symbolic and poetic work conceptualized by Marie-Claude Gendron. Involving the artist and many members of the Montréal action art community, the group will feed a fire—daily, stealthily and anonymously—keeping the fire burning continuously over the course of the last two weeks of January.

Up to 40 members of the community of fire keepers will be culled on invitation by the artist. Those who choose to participate in the project will receive a detailed map of the route to find the exact location of the fire. 

OPEN FIRE | FEU OUVERT is an attempt to revive the invisible link that unites us through the practice of action art. Confined, for the most part, to the home, Marie-Claude Gendron’s wish is to propose an outside simple manoeuvre that involves the participation of artists in whatever way is possible given their respective means and motivation. The resolution is to foster being together, even in an abstract and active way in the imagination.

The closing event for OPEN FIRE | FEU OUVERT is a co-presentation with VIVA! Art Action.

Photo by Karine Locatelli, 2018

Canada
www.marieclaudegendron.com

Through a multidisciplinary approach in action art, visual arts and media arts, Marie-Claude Gendron attempts to identify the patterns of a community that is constantly actualizing itself in the public, private and intimate spheres. She considers the potential of the archive and of ruin through action and spatial settings that she sometimes presents as “tableaux vivants.” In the order of raw commemoration, her projects highlight the inevitable transformation of the existing. She is interested in the multiple possibilities of the book-object and the different forms of poetry in action.

Born in Québec City, Marie-Claude Gendron is involved in the organization of self-managed performative events and participates in several residencies, exhibitions and events in Quebec, France, Brazil, Italy, Northern Ireland, Thailand, Mexico and Switzerland. His work has been the subject of solo and collective presentations at the Galerie de l’UQAM (Montréal, CAN), the Bangkok Art & Culture Centre (Bangkok,TH), the Museo de medicinal laboral (Real del Monte, MX), the Galerie des arts visuels (Québec City, CAN) and as part of RIAP 2012 and 2014 (international performance art meetings, Le Lieu, Québec City, CAN). She has won various prizes and creation grants, including the original initiative grant for the independent broadcast of Première Ovation in 2012 and 2013, the FARE grant in 2014, support from SODEC in 2016 and travel and creation grants from CALQ in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2019. Marie-Claude Gendron holds a Bachelor’s degree in Visual and Media Arts from Université Laval and a Master’s degree in Visual and Media Arts from Université du Québec à Montréal.