Richard Ibghy & Marilou Lemmens. Real failure needs no excuse (2012). HD video, colour, sound. Video still
In conjunction with
RICHARD IBGHY & MARILOU LEMMENS
PUTTING LIFE TO WORK
Saturday, March 19, 2 – 5 pm
Workshop led by the Groupe de lecture critique sur les pratiques administratives / Critical reading group on administrative practices (Amber Berson, Vincent Bonin, Edith Brunette, Michael Eddy, François Lemieux, Charlotte Panaccio-Letendre)
This activity is hosted at The Leonard & Bina Ellen Gallery, at Concordia University, within the framework of Richard Ibghy & Marilou Lemmens’ exhibition, Putting Life to Work, curated by Véronique Leblanc. Taking the form of a 3-hours workshop, When Lexi met Franc (coined from “lexique” and “franc-parler”) is an opportunity to collectively develop a lexicon around political autonomy, affect, language and culture in a time of austerity measures. Following similar recent iterations of working sessions around this lexicon, the setting at the gallery will provide an occasion for discussion that strives neither to present expertise nor to avoid its context.
Words are often picked up and employed with the assumption that we have a common understanding; this is not necessarily the case. In the art field and beyond, there is a linguistic turnover that rapidly ejects and repurposes certain words and meanings, making way for new waves. Moreover, there are forces acting on language at fundamental levels to regulate speech and mandate certain terms, like government policies, the economy, and authorities like the university. As an ongoing project, the lexicon does not seek to come to some free-floating and non-ideological definition of language. But it does seek to ground divergent and enforced understandings in the experiences of participants.
Members of the Groupe de lecture critique sur les pratiques administratives presented short book reports of texts related to a base essay, Holding a Position by Marina Vishmidt (2014), which all attending the workshop were encouraged to have read in advance.
A pdf version of the essay, in French and English, made available through Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers, is available here.
(Marina Vishmidt, “Holding a Position,” Notes sur les mouvements, no. 2, March 2014, p. 14-16. Published by Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers, Aubervilliers.)
Conversations were held in both languages
At the Gallery
A bibliography citing the references discussed during the event is available in the Texts | Documents section.
The Groupe de lecture critique sur les pratiques administratives / Critical reading group on administrative practices is an informal, porous and parasitic cast of rotating members operating since 2014, or maybe 2012. Collectively, we read and discuss texts relating to critical administrative practices, occasionally under the public lens. We welcome new members.
RICHARD IBGHY & MARILOU LEMMENS
PUTTING LIFE TO WORK
February 18 – April 16, 2016
Curator: Véronique Leblanc