Pour une histoire de l’art engagée
http://histartengagee.com/
Pour une histoire de l’art engagée is a Montreal-based (Tiohtià:ke) collective founded in 2023 with the objective of developing interdisciplinary cultural and research projects that situate art historical practices in a reflection that resonates with current socio-political issues.
The 2024/2025 programme will be dedicated to the theme “Ways to Resist”, conceived as a collective call for active reflection and concrete action. Here, resistance is expressed as a creative force, embodied in artistic practices as well as everyday gestures, in the face of unbalanced power dynamics. One year after the start of the genocide in Gaza and the escalation of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, these events bring together artists’ works and researchers’ analyses that reveal different strategies and forms of cultural resistance. By challenging dominant narratives, these practices shed light on how representations of identity, conveyed through cultural productions and the media, have contributed to the dehumanization and erasure of voices we are witnessing today.
“You are not defeated as long as you continue to resist”
Mehdi Amel
PROGRAM :
Pop-up Exhibition
Audiovisual installation
From Tuesday 26 November to 4 December
UQAM, Art History Department, Pavillon des Sciences de la gestion (R), faculty room, R-4150
An installation including the film Introduction to the end of an argument (Muqaddimah Li-Nihayat Jidal)/ Speaking for oneself… Speaking for others… (1990, 41:41 min) by Jayce Salloum and Elia Suleiman, shown on a loop with headphones during the opening hours of the faculty room of the Department of Art History at UQAM. The video installation will be accompanied by leaflets on the various ways of taking part in actions linked to the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement (BDS).
A small exhibition will also feature historical posters accompanied by documentary resources illustrating the various means of action linked to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. This visual presentation takes visitors on a journey through these initiatives and their historical context, inviting them to reflect on the impact and evolution of these mobilizations.
Synopsis :
“ Introduction to the end of an argument (Muqaddimah Li-Nihayat Jidal)/ Speaking for oneself… Speaking for others… ”, Jayce Salloum et Elia Suleiman (1990)
With a combination of Hollywood, European, and Israeli film; documentary; news coverage; and excerpts of ‘live’ footage shot in the occupied West Bank and Gaza strip, Muqaddimah Li-Nihayat Jidal (Introduction to the End of an Argument) critiques representations of the Middle East, Arab culture, and the Palestinian people produced by the West. The video mimics the dominant media’s forms of representation, subverting its methodology and construction. A process of displacement and deconstruction is enacted attempting to arrest the imagery and ideology, decolonizing and recontextualizing it to provide a space for a marginalized voice consistently denied expression in the media.
Meeting & discussion
Palestinian Cinema as Cultural Resistance: Representation, Public Screenings & PACBI With Claire Begbie (PhD, Concordia)
Wednesday 27 November from 5pm to 7pm
UQAM, Art History Department, Pavillon des Sciences de la gestion (R), faculty room, R-4150
Claire Begbie is a PhD student in Film and Moving Image Studies at Concordia University in Montreal/ Tiohtià:ke. She is a member of the Montreal-based film collective, Regards Palestiniens, the Coalition des Arts de Montréal pour la Palestine (CAMP) as well as Academics 4 Palestine at Concordia. Claire published her first monograph, Representations of Palestine in Egyptian Cinema: Politics of (In)visibility, with Peter Lang Publishing in 2023.
Workshop
Workshop Direct Actions, with the participation of Divest For Palestine (D4P)
Thursday 28 November from 12:45pm to 2pm
UQAM, Art History Department, Pavillon des Sciences de la gestion (R), faculty room, R-4150
This workshop aims to provide participants with the tools they need to actively support direct solidarity actions with Palestine on a global scale.
What is the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS)? What are its main goals? How can you get involved as a student, cultural worker or simply as a citizen?
Screening and discussion
Screening of Talaeen a Junuub: Up to the South de Jayce Salloum et Walid Raad
Followed by a discussion with the artist and director Jayce Salloum
Tuesday 3 December from 5.45pm to 7.30pm
UQAM, J.-A.-DeSève pavillon (DS), DS-1950
Synopsis :
An oblique, albeit powerful documentary that examines the politics, and economics conditions of South Lebanon in the 90’s. The tape focuses on the social, intellectual, and popular resistance to the Israeli occupation, as well as conceptions of “the land” and culture, and the imperiled identities of the Lebanese people. Simultaneously, the tape self-consciously engages in a critique of the documentary genre and its traditions.
Biography :
As an itinerant geographer of conflicted territories (most everywhere), Salloum observes the world and creates/collects images/texts to re/make meaning from or comment on. Since arriving here – by no means of his own volition – he tries to go only where he is invited or where there is an intrinsic affinity, his projects being rooted in an intimate engagement with place. A grandson of Syrian or Lebanese immigrants from the Beqaa Valley he was born and raised on others’ land, the Sylix (Okanagan) territory in Kelowna, BC. After 22 years living and working elsewheres (San Francisco, Banff, Toronto, San Diego, Beirut, and New York) he planted himself on the unceded stolen lands of the Xwmetskwíyem/xʷməθkʷey̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh/sqʷx̌ʷoʔməx (Squamish) + Selíl̓witulh/səíl̓wətaʔł (Tsleil-Waututh), aka Vancouver. Recognizing and acting on this is an everyday practice, but let’s face it, he could do a lot more. In/out of this context, his videotapes, photographs, installations, and other cultural projects engage the personal/subjective, reconfiguring notions of identity, community, history, boundaries, exile, trans/inter/intra-nationalism and resistance. His work has involved production and facilitation in many locales including Afghanistan, Lebanon, Palestine, the former Yugoslavia, Europa, San Francisco, San Diego, New York, Central America, Mexico, Columbia, Ecuador, Kamloops, Kelowna, Cumberland House, Vancouver, Aotearoa, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Philippines and Australia. Salloum has lectured and published pervasively and exhibited peripatetically at the widest range of local and international venues possible and most improbable, from the smallest unnamed storefronts in his dtes (downtown eastside) neighbourhood to institutions such as the Musée du Louvre, Museum of Modern Art, Guggenheim Museum, Centre Georges Pompidou, National Gallery of Canada, Bienal De La Havana, Sharjah Biennial, Biennale of Sydney and the Rotterdam International Film Festival.
Instagram : Instagram.com/jaycesalloum
Vimeo : https://vimeo.com/salloum
If you have any questions, please contact : hist.engagee@gmail.com
This project is supported by UQAM’s art history department and the Doc-Inter programme.
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