Programming
Ani Deschênes
Promenade mémorable
Le travail d'Ani Deschênes cherche à révéler l'humain dans ses attitudes et comportements en s'insérant, comme un caméléon, dans notre milieu de vie, sur notre chemin par exemple, à la bibliothèque publique, dans le stationnement d'un parc nature, lors d'une visite en calèche dans le Vieux-Montréal.
Mémoire vive
Initiated by DARE-DARE in collaboration with the Centre d'histoire de Montréal, Mémoire Vive provided a framework for reflection that brought together artists and stakeholders in the heritage field.
Interventions in the horse-drawn carriages of Old Montreal from June 24 to mid-August; From August 27 to September 22, at the Centre d'histoire de Montréal: video and questionnaire on the veracity of history, produced with the participation of the Centre d'histoire team.
Ani Deschênes' work seeks to reveal human attitudes and behaviours by inserting itself, like a chameleon, into our living environment, on our way to the public library, in the parking lot of a nature park, during a visit in a horse-drawn carriage in Old Montreal, for example. Promenade mémorable, which she is making as part of Mémoire vive, is interested in how people tell history; what they choose to emphasize, exaggerate, address in a neutral tone or ignore. Last October, she began a collection of stories about Montreal recorded during horse-drawn carriage rides and collected from guides at the Centre d'histoire de Montréal. From the official history made up of anecdotes that everyone knows, personal representations emerge that reflect the temperament of the carriage drivers and guides she met.
For Ani Deschênes, history is a vast repertoire of facts and characters that we use according to our needs, in a particular context. Her project seeks to raise doubts in people's minds about the veracity and authenticity of the stories told to her, both in the permanent exhibition at the Centre d'histoire de Montréal and during those memorable carriage rides. History seems unchanging to us because it is past and therefore without possibility of change. Yet we doubt certain facts to the point of inventing or believing an alternative and personal version of the past. It is this creativity, generated by doubt, that inspires Ani Deschênes. For her, doubt builds history by opening the door to the imagination. Thus, in her universe, history becomes a propagation of images and fantasized stories.