Yahndawa'

May 1 to May 14, 2022

As part of the Yahndawa' project initiated by VU, the collective made up of artists Philip Després, Alexis Gros-Louis, Érika Hagen-Veilleux, Andrée Lévesque Sioui, Jeffrey Poirier and Michel Teharihulen Savard proposes a co-creation project that revolves around Akiawenhrahk or Saint-Charles, this river which represents the physical and dreamlike link between them, their living environments, their creative spaces.

The residency at LA CHAMBRE BLANCHE from May 1 to 14 will be dedicated to the development of an installation project that will explore the poetic, natural, conceptual and mythological dimensions of Yahndawa': Yahndawa'.

dans l’eau
à la pêche
aux courbes
à la pêche
aux serpents
les mains
dans le repère
des poissons
ces choses en nous
qui n’ont pas
de jambes
mais qui
savent
avancer
​quand même 

Philip Després took part in master classes with ORLAN, Olivier de Sagazan, Monty Cantsin and Liping Ting. In 2019, Després received the CALQ scholarship to participate in the Marina Abramovic Institute workshop in Greece. The artist is active in the electro pop group Narcisse, which won 2nd place at the Francouvertes in 2020. Després presented his first solo performance at the RLAP (Rencontre locale d'art performance) in 2021. He will perform in the 7th edition of Où tu vas quand tu dors en marchant? in the spring of 2022.

Alexis Gros-Louis is a multidisciplinary Wendat artist from Wendake (Quebec, Canada). He currently lives and works in Tiohtià:ke — Mooniyang; Montreal (Canada). Alexis received his Master of Fine Arts from NSCAD University (2020). He previously obtained a BFA in which he majored in photography, from Concordia University (2017) and a DEC in Arts & Design from LaSalle College (2014). While photography is at the core of Gros-Louis’ practice, the artist juxtaposes the photographic processes with different media. Paratextual, these combinations serve as pathways to explore the materiality of images; the intertwined narratives and dialogues placed between objects, space and the viewer. Alexis Gros-Louis’ work primarily focuses on themes such as identity, indigeneity, normative and dominant cultures, categorization systems, obsolescence, alongside fundamental questions about art, art-making and its present and historical context.

Érika Hagen-Veilleux is a multidisciplinary artist based in Quebec City, Canada. She graduated from l’École de Cirque de Quebec in 2017. Her work is anchored in poetry and it’s different manifestations, through bodies, voice, music and writing. She is active in multiple artistic fields, notably circus (Théâtre À Tempo, Machine de cirque), literary arts (Productions Rhizome, Slamcap), music (Bleu kérosène), dance and theater (Les Bambines, Chevalier.e Érrante). In 2016, she co-founded the BAM [Bouillon d´art multi] as well as the multidisciplinary collective Les Bambines, combining theater, circus, poetry and music. Their first creation was presented at Premier Acte in 2019. That same year, she was mentored by the poet Marie-Andrée Gill, with the support of Première Ovation Arts littéraires. 

Andrée Lévesque Sioui, or Kwendokye's, which means "the one whose voice floats on water", is an author, composer, performer engaged in the transmission of language, oral traditions and community songs. Her awareness of history and its issues, as well as the integrity of her work guarantee her contribution to the whole project. She has notably performed in duet with Soleil Launière for the Equinoxe Autochtone du Cercle Kisis 2021 event; in performative orality duo with Andrée Kwendokye’s at La Tente Parlante (Quebec, 2020) and at RIAPA (Rassemblement Inter nations d’Art Performance, 2018). Kwendoky’es is also the pivot of the nomadic performance show Bingo Littéraire. The Salon du Livre Kwayatonhk on tour since 2019.

Jeffrey Poirier is a visual artist based in Quebec City and member of the LGBTQ+ community. He is developing an installation practice whose conceptual and formal affinities can be found in the wider circle of ecology. He received grants from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the Canada Council for the Arts and Première Ovation. In 2020, he was awarded the Prix Videre Création en arts visuels at the Prix d'excellence des arts de la culture in Quebec City. He holds a bachelor's degree as well as a master's degree in visual arts from Université Laval and has presented his work in solo exhibitions at Galerie RDV (Nantes, France), Youkobo Art Space (Tokyo, Japan), Centre culturel Franco-Manitobain (Winnipeg), Diagonale (Montreal), Circa Art Actuel (Montreal) and L’Œil de Poisson (Quebec City). In 2023, he will carry out a residency accompanied by a group exhibition at the NARS Foundation in Brooklyn (New York) and will install a new integrated public art work.

Teharihulen Michel Savard works as a sculptor, goldsmith, curator and water drummer and performer. His multidisciplinary works testify to his political commitment and celebrate the roots of the imagination of his people of the Huron-Wendat nation. Invited to exhibit for the opening of the first Daphne Indigenous artist-run centre in Tiöhtiàke/Montreal in 2021, his works are also part of Le Legs visuelle/littéraire exhibition at the Salon du Livre Kwayatonhk in Shawinigan, the important Kakakew exhibition. Imaginaires ensauvagés at Galerie AMF in Quebec City, 2021; in performative orality duo with Andrée Kwendokye’s at La Tente Parlante (Quebec, 2020); the traveling exhibition Microcosmes (2019), performance in duo with Andrée Kwendokye’s at RIAPA (Rassemblement Inter nations d’Art Performance, 2018), Résistances (Manif d’art, 2017), La loi sur les Indiens revisitée (Musée de Wendake, 2009).