Biography Edith Brunette

Edith Brunette is an artist, a writer, and a researcher interested in the discourses which make and break power as well as the range of modes of political engagement, particularly in the field of art. Her recent projects, created in collective forms of practice, have focused on the entrepreneurial ethos, the political agency of artists and the act of speaking out in times of social crisis. These projects have been exhibited in many galleries and art centres in Canada. She is currently conducting doctoral research in political studies at the University of Ottawa, looking at conceptions of freedom and political engagement among Canadian artists.

Biography François Lemieux

François Lemieux is an artist. He creates exhibitions, books and images that are likely to prompt collective thought on notions of care, commonality, and value. Artistic collaborations include: Désoeuvrer la valeur (To put value out of work) (2022), Going To, Making Do, Passing Just the Same and Sur les soins (On care) (2020), No comment in response to your question — contrary to expectation, we’ll forge ahead and Un soleil difficile (A Difficult Sun) (2017) as well as Cuts Make the Country Better (2015). Among other things, he is cofounder of the Journée sans culture collective and the editor since 2011 of Le Merle, Cahiers sur les mots et les gestes, a series of publications on art, politics, and ideas. He also teaches contemporary visual arts. In 2022, he is the recipient of the grant from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec for the Quebec studio at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin.

Approach

Installation title: Going To, Making Do, Passing Just the Same

With Going To…, we sought to outline a few proposals on the matter of inhabiting a territory, from the standpoint of our multiple, fragile, and often problematic attachments to the land. How does one reconnect with the earth, with the powers that lie dormant between it and us, and with this territory that has been damaged by our colonialist and capitalist ways of living and dying?

Along with some collaborators, we led a sculptural, video, and literary investigation into the material conditions of our existence—what are these territories we live on and how do they organize us? In the exhibition space, assembled artefacts, collected organic and industrial objects, fabricated structures, videos, and sound recordings reported back on this investigation. Nuclear energy met herbalism, border administration met gestures of collective care, and a golf course became a refinery’s ecological façade.

Going To, Making Do, Passing Just the Same was produced with the financial support of the Leonard & Bina Ellen Program in Support of Artistic Production and the Canada Council for the Arts. A first version of the project was presented at the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery in 2020–2021.