Civilities (2003)

To view the web work today, it is necessary to install a plugin that allows to activate the Flash software with which the original project was made.

http://www.agencetopo.qc.ca/civilites/

The NT2 Laboratory for Research on Digital Arts and Literature has created an enriched file for the project in its directory.

https://nt2.uqam.ca/fr/repertoire/civilites-civilities

Civilities is a modular and collective fiction bringing together a dozen Montreal artists from various disciplines and backgrounds who offer different perspectives on “living together”. From interfaces representing the public space, that of the community and the civitas, small stories develop like windows on more universal situations, on a certain state of the world, at least troubled and violent. The guest artists question the possible spaces of trust, reconciliation and cohabitation of persons, peoples and religions. From the rules of religious fundamentalisms to the movements of anonymous crowds in the city, the projects address various aspects of social organization, cultural norms and collective spaces of common practices.

“Eva Quintas’ project, Tirer, developed within the general structure of Civilities, deals with power and domination in the family. The family home, the space in which one first learns to live with others, is certainly the most sensitive place. Opening with an anecdote about a mother pulling a child a little too violently by the hand, the artist deals with the more general notion of everyday, insidious power and violence. How is power exerted within the limited group of the family. This theme is supported by spoken excerpts from Roland Barthes’ Comment vivre ensemble?, a reflection on the relationship between power, domination, and individual rhythm: “master is he who sets the pace. ”

Cecile Petit
Civilités, un site à voir
Electronic magazine, Centre international d’art contemporain, no. 22, 2005