Programming

Massimo Guerrera's project, which has been underway for over three years, has developed around La Cantine, a group formed with Patrick Bourque and Isabelle Chabot. La Cantine uses the metaphor of food and the considerable amount of ideas, information, and sensations that are linked to it to address the interaction between the private (via the individual body, the organic reality of the corporeal territory) and the public (via the social body, the collective reality). The search for and sharing of food, according to Guerrera's premises, is a fundamental social reality in that these activities constantly bring the individual back to his dependence on others and his belonging to a group, a collective body.

The problematics of The Canteen turn around the principles of circulation, exchanges and distribution of concrete and symbolic food. It puts in representation a common body, malleable and hybrid, which posts itself punctually in the places of passage that are the street or the public place. The concentrated activity of La Cantine, says the artist, attempts to generate interactions and perceptions that are different from the monetizable and promotional exchanges usually found in these public places.

La Cantine travels the streets with a mobile vehicle with multiple drawers whose contents are in constant metamorphosis. The whole project adjusts, from performance to performance, to the new components and accessories created by the progress of the research in the workshop and by the empirical experiences of the maneuvers during the public outings.

From January 11 to February 16, La Cantine will take over DARE-DARE's space as its temporary headquarters. As part of its business of redistributing and transforming earthly foods, the Canteen will use this transitional facility to enhance "the poetic density of its products, optimize their functional dis-powers, develop a new marketing campaign, and monetize distribution." Interventions at the temporary headquarters and public events are planned during this period.

Redistribution and transformation of earthly foods

from January 11 to February 16, 1997
Opening of the offices › le 11 janvier 1997 @ 12h00
Business meetings › Thursdays, January 16 and 30 and February 13, 5:00 to 7:00 pm.

Massimo Guerrera received his BFA from the Université du Québec à Montréal in 1992. Since 1988, he has exhibited or intervened regularly on the Montreal public scene and has notably to his credit Transformations domestiques (Atelier Dell'Arte, 1996), La Cantine, sorties 1-2-3 (Montreal, 1995), and Usine métabolique (Montreal, 1994). He also designed and built the costume and stage installation for Chants du capricorne, a production of Chants libres with Pauline Vaillancourt.