Programming
MONA SHARMA
TRUE TALES OF INTRIGUE
This project consists of small booklets with short, powerful stories that people have told me over the years.
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BOOK LAUNCH
Thursday, August 16th 4.30 ❯ 7:30 PM at Centre Culturel Georges-Vanier, Espace Galerie 2450 Rue Workman, Métro Lionel-GroulxThis micro edition has been printed in 250 copies (125 in French + 125 in English). It comes in its transparent plastic envelope with magnifying glass lens card.
Softcover with illustrations by the author (14 cm x 11 cm), 28 pages
Insert of 3 maps (25,3 cm x 40,6 cm)
Distributed free of charge until available at:
Saint-Henri Library, Georges-Vanier Library, Saint-Henri Solidarity, POPIR, Familijeunes, Coalition of Little Burgundy,
Crossover Comics, Monastiraki, L'Euguélionne - Librairie féministe, Artexte, RCAAQ, La Centrale - Powerhouse Gallery,
DARE-DARE.
Among other projects, I am currently writing a series of zines titled True Tales of Intrigue, small booklets that tell short, powerful stories that people have told me over the years. Thanks to the support of the DARE-DARE artist center and motivated by your FRICTIONS theme, I am going to produce a specific issue on the district where you are currently: Sainte-Cunegonde/Little Burgundy/Saint-Henri. This zine offers a counterbalance to the shocking gentrification that, over the last decade, has transfigured the sector to the point of making it unrecognizable. I plan to broadcast this zine free in unlikely places in the neighbourhood so that this new generation of residents can acquire a more human knowledge of the district, an acquaintance that neither the Fancy Vintage bars (illuminated with Edison bulbs), nor a $12.00 speciality cocktail, nor the promotional signs of chic industrial condos can not transmit.
1) Collect stories: As I grew up in the area, I already have a number of interesting anecdotes to start with. I also have a list of institutions that have been in the area for over 30 years that I have been able to consult. Although my artistic practice is a little varied, all my work is narrative, and I have become very good at getting people to talk about themselves and their experiences, using a number of techniques.
2) Draw a map that will be drawn from the memory of what the neighborhood looked like before this wave of gentrification occurred.
3) Dissemination: Once the zine is finished, it will be broadcast through DARE-DARE and disseminated in incongruous points of the neighborhood. I would like to discreetly leave publications in cafes, restaurants, window frames, books, magazines, grocery flyers, etc.
Mona Sharma is a first-generation Canadian artist of South Asian descent. She obtained her MFA from Concordia University, Montreal in 2012. She has received numerous grants and has exhibited her art in galleries across Canada and the United States. She works primarily in soft sculpture and digital drawing, two mediums whose accessible exteriors lend well to subversive acts. Directly inspired by tensions induced by the diverse nature of her background, her goal through art has been to foster a more critical understanding of how we form as individuals and function as a society.
