Programming

• 
• 
• 
• 

View more

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

---

LAUNCH

dream listener: An audiobook in three movements
october 19, 2007
18h to 23h
at the park with no name

Donations collected during the evening will be donated to St. James Day Center.

---

The audiobook is the fascinating story of Dream listener, a public art project by karen elaine spencer in collaboration with the Montreal Urban Research Center (CRUM), Homeless Nation and the St. James Day Center. The Dream listener project is a mobile intervention that takes place on the street over a period of one year; Initiated on November 25, 2006, it will end on November 25. For a year, Karen Spencer took to the streets with cardboard signs on which her dreams were written. Then follows a dialogue with the people of the street, offering the opportunity to enter the dream world of others. She asked the audience, " Have you dreamed last night? Tell me your dream. "

We are all beautiful dreamers.

Since the intervention takes place in the street and because the cardboard used to communicate the dreams is recycled, a direct relationship is established between the actions and the people who live in the street. Karen has also spent the year building relationships with people at St. James Day Center in Montreal, where those at risk come from because of one or a combination of homelessness, mental illness, substance abuse, personality disorders or intellectual disability. The presentations took place in Montreal, Chicoutimi and North Bay, Ontario, where she shared, compiled and listened to dreams.

Following the ideas of karen elaine spencer, the Montreal Urban Research Center has created an audio composition as part of Dream listener.

dream listener: an audiobook in three movements combines excerpts of dreams collected by Karen with narrations of encounters with street people during the project. At the same time poignant, surreal, comical and revealing, this audio book is as much a document of Karen's experience as an original work. The disc will be available at the launch event - a donation of $ 10 is suggested; all profits will be donated to the St. James Center.

" As part of my artistic research, I begin to deepen my understanding of the ephemeral nature of everyday experiences and to re-situate them in space and time. Specifically, I seek to subvert activities and spaces that are given a low exchange rate. I have always worked in spheres where the withdrawal of a secure social position is discussed. The expect nothing (2000) rooming house was based on a precarious report on homelessness; ramblin 'man (2001) did not seek to occupy any space; loitererin '(2003) took place in a delicate relationship with the territory; and metro rider (2004) was in constant motion. With Dream listener, I continue this exploration. "

www.dreamlistener.wordpress.com

---

Listening: karen elaine spencer's project is about listening to dreams. Listening again. And again. She will dive into the world of dreams and this very immersion becomes the content of her work. Listening is associated with the ephemeral nature, the disappearance of things: the dream told, the dream heard, the dream that disappears.

In order to place the work in a global artistic practice, it would be appropriate to draw a parallel with the performance project Writing diary with water, in progress since 1995, by the Beijing artist Song Dong. Dong uses a calligraphy brush to write diary entries on a block of stone with water. The artist's explanation is eloquent: "After a while, this stone slowly became part of my being. So I could tell it whatever I wanted, without any scruples. This action became part of my life and allowed me to be more relaxed." In a way, listening to dreams is also an action that becomes part of life, an action that leaves no trace and is repeated continuously. Telling the dream challenges the hearing; then everything disappears, like the water letters on the stone that disappear.

Display: Over a period of one year, Karen Spencer will write the dreams on cardboard panels; she will go down the street and display a panel in front of her. Made visible by the display, the dream will elicit a response. Once the dialogue has begun, it will be possible to enter the dream world of others. This world, which belongs to the private life, is thus displaced in the social sphere; it is then created a friction between the dreams and the conveniences, the standards. It is a question of blurring the borders between interior and exterior (in the street).

"To resort to waste such as cardboard, to impregnate it with words before abandoning it again. To believe in the potential of the indirect, of the invisible, of chance encounters with spectators or non-spectators -- a glance, whether brief, oblique or fixed, a smile, the turning away of eyes, the dodging, the approach..."

All of the dream-bearing panels, as well as the site of their abandonment, are documented through digital images. The blog will report on some of the encounters.

Recording: The third section will bring together homelessness and dreams -- both of which are considered to have no economic value, and both of which are tolerated as long as they remain invisible and do not interfere with the market economy. Dreaming is an activity generally considered a waste of time, since it does not produce market value. Homeless people are generally considered a social burden, since they require others to intervene on their behalf to ensure their "well-being."

A compact disc compiling the recording of dreams will be produced in collaboration with Homeless Nation and the Centre de recherche urbaine de Montréal. The launch is planned for October 2007 on the occasion of the 18th Nuit des sans-abri du Québec. The audiophonic dreams will eventually be available for download from the Homeless Nation website.

---

Visit

Wednesday, April 4 from 1 to 4:30 pm at the St-James
Day Center (art studio: 1440 St-Alexandre, corner Sainte-Catherine, 3rd floor)

Performance

karen elaine spencer will give a performance/dream reading at the Festival Voix d'Amérique

February 5, 2007 between 5pm-7pm
at Casa del Popolo
4873 boul. Saint-Laurent

as part of the Text-Perplexed series hosted by Victoria Stanton

www.fva.ca

Meeting with the artist
At Souffles Gallery
Friday December 8, 2006 at 7pm

Souffles 7044 St-Urbain (between Mozart and Jean-Talon)
Montreal Quebec H2S 3H5
(514) 271-4691 Castelnau metro
souffles@bellnet.ca

dream listener/carrier de rêves

the dream listener takes to the street
she takes her place on the sidewalk
holds words in front of her
words written on recycled cardboard
these words tell a dream.
the others see the words, read the words
approach her, speak to her
she asks them:
"Did you dream last night?
Tell me about your dream."
she listens.
when she leaves the street
she leaves behind the box with the dream

---

karen elaine spencer holds a Master of Arts degree from UQAM. She has presented her work many times in Quebec, Canada, Finland, Yugoslavia, Italy and France. The Montreal Urban Research Center is an artist collective that wants to explore and develop links between art and urban space. Current members of the CRUM are Chris Carrière, Matt Killen, Alexandra McIntosh, Douglas Scholes and Felicity Tayler.

---

The artist received financial support from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec for her project. She wishes to thank Émilie Laforce, Priscilla R. Kauffmann, Christine Brault, Valérie Perron, Jean-Pierre Caissie and Anne-Marie Beaulieu, coordinator of the art workshop at the St-James Day Centre.

---

With the collaboration of the Centre de recherche urbaine de Montréal, Homeless Nation and Centre de jour St-James.

---

---