© Maude Chauvin
Almost everything is outmoded, ineffective. There are no more certainties. Tomorrow remains unpredictable. The world of yesterday is slowly fading to black in a hazy fog. The boundaries of territories, whether political or intimate, physical or virtual, are inadequate and no longer correspond to multiple, changing realities. A rose is no longer only “a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose” as per Gertrude Stein’s disarmingly simple aphorism. For that matter, are there any roses left? If so, how to represent them? Solely by means of other roses?
The possibilities and vastness of the arts and their underlying ethics are subject, in these revolutionary times, to bitter debate. Is the artist still absolutely free to create, to rejoice? Or on the contrary, is he or she constrained by certain specifications, a sense of responsibility made necessary by centuries of oppression, colonialism, appropriation, contempt? Or are the doubts raised by the times we are living in not an incredible opportunity to venture into realms of liberation and emancipation?
Things are changing at a dizzying pace. Stagnation is no longer possible. We must be shaken to the core by a gust of refreshing wind so that we can really reach out to the Other. Throughout this 13th edition I invite you to step beyond the self, to make a move, to listen, to adopt another perspective so as to be revamped, transformed by contact with the world.
Martin Faucher
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