Sentient | Disobedient
Video Program
August 26 – August 29, 2024
PHI Foundation
465 Saint-Jean Street, suite 120
Montréal, Québec H2Y 2R6
A.K. Burns, Geneviève Cadieux, Ellen Cantor, Victoria Carrasco, VALIE EXPORT, Nadège Grebmeier Forget, Bettina Hoffmann, arkadi lavoie lachapelle, Ana Mendieta, Lynne Sachs, Aki Sasamoto, Luna Scales, Carolee Schneemann, Nina Vroemen
Contemporary feminism appears to be morphing significantly and is being re-examined in different circles that are exploring progressive ways to love, [1] to be, and to evolve. Emancipation has evolved from issues related to reproductive rights to ideas around relationships, procreation, family, and friendships. The sentient body is at the core of these politics, and internationally, women’s rights movements are reclaiming control over their bodies, fighting for ownership and agency as a way to achieve revolution and true feminism, and attempting to tip over [2] the patriarchy and its male gaze. Beliefs about parenthood and its impact on the self can be debated, and they challenge ideas around autonomy and independence, for example, rather than the sense of purpose that comes with motherhood, the same purpose can be found through bodily autonomy. Moreover, access to freedom and enjoyment of sexuality [3] without fear of reproductive consequences is also folded into these reflections.
Sentient | Disobedient is a screening program of videos that evoke art history and the feminist practices that have marked it. These are presented alongside contemporary video works by Québec artists. A critical focus for the program is using the body to challenge the roles and decisions imposed upon us. How do we achieve freedom? These works place feminism in search of its new wave, where politics and emotion can be embodied together through the sentient body.
In this program, the act of performance frees the body towards autonomy, guided by ideas of reproductive rights, sexual freedom, passing time, sensuality, and love. The first part features a selection by artists that created a contemporary art history through video works, starting with artists like VALIE EXPORT, Carolee Schneemann, and Ana Mendieta, as well as their peers A.K. Burns, Ellen Cantor, Lynne Sachs, Aki Sasamoto, and Luna Scales. This part of the program conceptually references a few historical moments, like the censorship of performance [4] in Singapore from 1994-2004 that raised the question of ‘obscenity’ in art. This is one example of how certain parts of the world have been restricted creatively with their use of the body. The first part of this program closes with Contractions by Lynne Sachs calling our attention to the 1973 ruling of Roe v. Wade in the United States which protected abortion laws until 2023, a fact that reminds us that abortion is still illegal in many parts of the world.
Paramour [5] by Geneviève Cadieux opens the second half of the program, in which there is a division between a man and a woman. Their voices and desires are disconnected in time and space, between them and also with the viewers. This artwork is powerful because of the visual language Cadieux develops through the image. It is one of strength, vulnerability, and detachment, that deals with the complexities of relations, being, love, and sensuality. These strengths and sensibilities are reflected in the remainder of the program: Aki Sasamoto expresses a nonchalant yet energetic, powerful, and controlled performance of a passage through time while connecting with the viewer in Do Nut Diagram. In Hubba Hubba, Nadège Grebmeier Forget is idle, submissively chewing gum, and exaggeratedly performing for the camera, following an early trend of online clichés understood as beauty standards. La grève des pondeuses, by arkadi lavoie lachapelle, is a futuristic fiction that possibly reveals the true future of fertility. Bettina Hoffmann’s Mechanics of Touch is a sensitive and poetic piece about touch, evoking the familiarity and comfort of gestures, and closeness. In Surface Depth, Nina Vroemen sensualizes and reimagines the myth of Narcissus, reconnecting us to nature and queerness, and challenging the fixedness of what it means to be a body.
Finally, as a curator and former artist, feminism has always been an important part of my work. This is why I am including the video work Control, which was part of my previous practice as an artist. In this piece, I explored the presence and meaning of eroticism in everyday life, questioning what constitutes independence and pleasure as both a vision and a choice. This program will continue to evolve, with more video contributions from local and national artists in its next iteration in 2024-2025.
Curator: Victoria Carrasco
[1] See Simon(e) van Saarlos, Playing Monogamy, trans. Liz Waters (Rotterdam: Publication Studio, 2019).
[2] Susan Sontag, The Double Standard of Aging, On Women (Picador, 2023), 3-39.
[3] The enjoyment of sexuality is referenced in another work by Carolee Schneeman, titled Fuses (1964-67). This 30 minute experimental film depicts the artist and her partner having intercourse as equals. Fuses has been censored many times and became a controversial reference and an inspiration to filmmakers and artists.
[4] This censorship came about after the artist Josef Ng performed Brother Cane (1993) where he cut a piece of his own pubic hair while performing.
[5] Paramour (1998-1999) was originally presented as a video/sound installation, and will be presented in this program exceptionally as a screening.