For the last twenty years and since the creation of La Banque à Bas in Montreal (installation of stoves welded together, used to distribute warm clothes), and État d’Urgence (mani-festival recreating a refugee camp in the heart city centre), ATSA has been using its artistic projects to serve social, environmental and heritage causes. Through these fun and festive multidisciplinary participatory events, PIERRE ALLARD and ANNIE ROY are constantly exploring citizen awareness, art and public space by inviting people to experiment with their own capacity for action. LE TEMPS D’UNE SOUPE was created in 2015 and held at Place Émilie-Gamelin, Montreal, for La Nuit des Sans-Abris (NSA), a Canadian event dedicated to raising awareness about homelessness. The project combined a staged encounter and discussion around a bowl of soup. The installation will be setting up in France for the first time in France at Place Hoche, Rennes.
A platform serves as the setting, with chairs set up in pairs, and a giant screen, as “conversation maître d’s” equipped with menus invite the public to talk with a complete stranger. A short phrase, a few words summing up the encounter are marked on a chalkboard and a picture of the pair is taken. LE TEMPS D’UNE SOUPE is a simply staged event that will bring together the associations d’Ici ou d’ailleurs and Disco Soupe (Rennes) to prepare the meal ahead of time, a workshop with neighbourhood representatives and volunteers to prepare the menu of conversation starters, the association l’Age de la Tortue (Rennes, creator of the Encyclopédie des Migrants), a sign language interpreter and an actor from Rennes to facilitate the event.
This event brings people together to create an installation focused on new encounters and community spirit in public space, fostering curiosity and openness. With its stylised approach and artistic use of a festive meal and poetic images, ATSA deserves its place at TOMBÉES DE LA NUIT!
BIOGRAPHY
Quebeckers PIERRE ALLARD and ANNIE ROY have been working in Montreal for twenty years, constantly exploring the urban landscape to bring back the role of public space as a forum and gathering place. The couple share their love for each other and art, using all forms of art to create “Transdisciplinary Actions” dedicated to encounters and conversation with a major focus on public involvement and citizen engagement. From its beginnings with La Banque à Bas (1997), État d’Urgence (1998 to 2010) and Parc Industriel (2001), where the company still went by the name Action Terroriste Socialement Acceptable, to its more recent “Cuisine ta ville” and “Tout devient possible”, which shed the spotlight on immigration and refugee camps, the association (now ATSA – Quand l’Art Passe à l’Action) has been behind numerous touring events, operations, installations, walking tours and relational mechanisms to break down the barriers of silence. The artists have received the Prix Citoyen de la Culture (Canada, 2008) and Artistes pour la Paix awards (Canada, 2008) and the Prix du Maire de Montréal en Démocratie (2013). Their work has also led them to involvement in seminars, workshops and conferences, to share their experience from two decades of artistic and collective creation in public space.
DISTRIBUTION
Co-founders ( artistic and general direction ) : Pierre Allard et Annie Roy / administrative director : Salomé Viguier
ATSA would like to thank the Canada Council for the Arts and the Quebec Arts and Letters Council for their support of the tour.
