EIM 2019 / PROJETS SATELLITES – SATELLITE PROJECTS - CREATIVE RESIDENCIES AND WORKS IN THE PERIPHERY / ALEXANDRE CASTONGUAY - MARIANGELA APONTE NÚÑEZ / AGIT P.O.V.

ALEXANDRE CASTONGUAY - MARIANGELA APONTE NÚÑEZ
25.07 — 15.09 / 2019

Opening reception : Thursday, July 25, 2019 ‑ 17h

Agit P.O.V. (Petit Objet de Vélo) is a microhacking project for bicycles, inspired by the optical effect POV or retinal persistence, the active propaganda practices of the Russian avant-garde (AGIT Prop) and the SpokePOV project of Limor Fried (LadyAda).

A modest circuit of 12 LEDs, a microcontroller and a battery attached to the spokes of the wheel of a bicycle, together with the appropriate programming and the energy of the cyclist, are enough to illuminate the street with poetic-political messages. Agit P.O.V. invites participants to a workshop and a mobile textual performance in the streets of our cities – those of the city of Valcourt for the occasion. Our bikes can thus carry a poetic and creative voice.

To passive surveillance, we can juxtapose its corollary: active infiltration. Like a peaceful and silent micro-squadron or stealthy free agents, Agit P.O.V.’s participative experience allows us to insinuate ourselves into the public space and gives back to volunteer citizens the means of an expression that is too little valued. Carriers of a silent but proactive word, the participants in the project are then the vectors of transmission of new perspectives, which contribute to open our vision of the world.

At the same time, the artists became interested in the issues of permaculture and sustainable development. They set out to travel the region to document local ingenuity initiatives. Their nomadic residency also led them to explore the issue of deforestation in the Eastern Townships versus the Amazon, and the human costs associated with it. The recipe for a “decolonized” soup – created in collaboration with Sherbrooke chef Catherine Migneault (Tournesols et tabliers) – as well as a prototype of a ceramic bowl, modeled from data extracted from a Peruvian open-pit copper mine, also testify to the artists’ investigation. By a proactive posture, the artists question their inscription in an economic system, and its possible range. The whole project is thus positioned as an initiative of quiet activism, presented to the public in the form of a documentation intertwining factual research and artistic creation.

Satellite projects – creative residencies and works in the periphery

For the first time since the beginning of EIM, Sporobole created bridges with three regions of the Eastern Townships on the outskirts of Sherbrooke: Saint-Camille, Compton, Valcourt and Mont-Mégantic. These bridges took the form of in-situ creation residences where artists were invited, in May, June and July, to conceive a creation project anchored in the community. With the punctual contribution of citizens in various forms, in connection with the projects, the artists produce works that put into perspective certain distinctive values that help define these regions. Whether it is a question of mobility, precision agriculture, robotization of agri-food processes, transformation of the landscape or connected territories, the axes of reflection that have given shape to the projects are the common threads that allow artistic creation and the specificity of the contexts to be linked together.

Each in their own way, these projects also call upon the notions of connection, transmission, surveillance, capture, observation, infiltration and invasion, which constitute the reflective foundations of this 5th edition of EIM.

Saint-Camille :: Isabelle Gagné (QC-CA) – Hektor (2019)
Compton :: Mériol Lehmann (QC-CA) – 308 lots (2019)
Valcourt :: Alexandre Castonguay (QC-CA) and Mariangela Aponte Núñez (CO) – Agit P.O.V.(2012-)
ASTROlab of Mont-Mégantic :: Jean-Pierre Aubé (QC-CA) – Du Mont-Mégantic aux exoplanètes (2019)