© Brian Patrick Tagalog Unsplash
Session 38 | La Quadrature
With Paul Bradley, Céline Jantet and Nicolas Rochette
On May 8, 2025 at 7 pm
— Facebook event
La Quadrature presents a performance exploring the artist’s daily struggles, reacting to the pressures of productivity.
Under the weight of an infinite to-do list and the mechanics of the performance, a series of narrations unfold, ranging from fragmented stories to administrative manifestos, and revealing the pitfalls of the working world. Though eclectic, their objections converge particularly around a demand for the right to time for dreaming, to make a living from one's work, and even to exist fully.
Continuing their work on the link between storytelling and contemporary art, La Quadrature explores an expression that describes the art of storytelling as “cinema of the poor”: an art that produces images, conceived not by the artist but rather by the listener. In a socio-economic context characterized by the alienation caused by systems prioritizing productivity, this reversal is an act of resistance. It is impossible for demonstration, as a praxis of protest, to generate viable alternative systems without the prior emergence of an emancipatory imaginary. Rather than imposing a preconceived iconography for potential utopias, La Quadrature favors a non-hegemonic approach to the collective imagination. Storytelling thus becomes a device for cognitive activation that catalyzes an autonomous production of mental images by listeners, giving them sovereignty over their own dreamscape.
La Quadrature is a contemporary storytelling research and creation collective that explores today’s social issues. The performance presented at Dazibao marks an important stage in Perpétuelle manifestation, an ongoing project that is being publicly presented for the first time.
Dazibao thanks the artists for their generous collaboration as well as its advisory committee for their support.
Dazibao receives financial support from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts de Montréal, the ministère de la Culture et des Communications and the Ville de Montréal.
Dazibao acknowledges that it is located on the unceded territory of the Kanien'kehá: ka Nation and that Tiohtiá:ke / Montreal is historically known as a gathering place for many First Nations, and today, is home to a diverse population of Indigenous as well as other peoples. Guided by ethics of respect, listening, and awareness, Dazibao commits to a continued reflection regarding the deep-rooted and systemic challenges tied to accessibility and inclusivity in the arts and beyond, and endeavors to apply such reflections to all aspects of its activities and governance.