Surprising street meet
Robyn Fadden
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Milan Gervais and Andrew Turner hit the road in outdoor dance work Auto-Fiction
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Take a stroll through the creative art, theatre, music and dance worlds of this weekend's Les Escales Improbables
Public art is often meant to please some imagined majority of people, as if it's running for election or vying for CBC airtime. But one of the thrills of living in a city like Montreal is the array of difference - in people, lifestyle choices and artistic output. Multidisciplinary art festival Les Escales Improbables, now in its sixth year at the Quays of the Old Port, may be based in public art, but it also questions the concept. "The artists have a relationship with the public," explains artistic director and co-founder Sylvie Teste. "They're interested in working outside of a theatre or gallery, but they're not exactly public artists. The festival works to balance the intimate and the collective."
Festival artists often end up working along a naturally emerging thematic line, explains Teste. "This year, the line is around the question of environment: how we live in our urban spaces and the balance between industrial environments and natural environments."
Daytime events encourage strolling through the artistically enhanced Jardin Eau-Canada. Wander over to watch ironworks sculptor Glen LeMesurier create Poisson Jurassic or experience the in-situ theatre of France's Grand Magasin. Shop till you drop at 2boys.tv's boutiqueARCADE - a shoe store unlike any other, where each shoebox corresponds to a secret corner of the city. When you do drop, recline to live music at the Siestes Musicales. And wake up to the Ekumen collective's musical alarm clocks.
In Auto-Fiction,
dancers Milan Gervais and Andrew Turner address how cars affect our everyday urban lives. Forestare's 12-guitar interpretation of Rosewood for 100 Guitars takes a musical approach to the complex politics of deforestation.Saturday night's three-hour Soirée de Sentiers brings several of the daytime elements together in a different way as aerosol/graffiti artist Omen creates a mural alongside music, dance and video from Forestare, Martin Messier and Caroline Laurin Beaucage, 2e Porte à Gauche, Île de la Réunion's Lo Griyo and The National Parcs. But just because they're indoors and sticking to a schedule doesn't mean the show will be traditional - the audience and performance space will still be intrinsic parts of the experience.
Those of us who get squeamish at the idea of audience participation shouldn't worry: The art here reflects life's public and private aspects, from the quotidian to the bizarre, and the level of involvement in this grand collective is up to the individual - in this public space, freedom reigns.
Les Escales Improbables
Daytime performances at the Jardin Eau-Canada (in front of the Science Centre), Sept. 11-13, 2-6 p.m., free
Evening performances at Shed 16 (at the clock-tower pier entrance), Sept. 12, 8 p.m., $17-$22
See www.escalesimprobables.com for full schedule
