Meeting Eva_Laia (2022)

This project is part of a photographic exchange between the VU (Quebec City) and Roca Umbert (Granollers) centres within the framework of cultural cooperation agreements between Quebec and Catalonia. Courants/Corrents brought together two photographers from Quebec and two from Catalonia for a three-part exchange: photographic correspondence on Instagram, cross-residencies, and exhibitions in both centres.

https://vuphoto.org/fr/calendrier/evenement/courants-corrents/

I was paired with the Barcelona artist Laia Moreto, and our photographic dialogue on Instagram took place during the period of the pandemic, between May 2020 and October 2022. It took the form of a game of exquisite corpse, one photograph responding to the other, which we organized in waves of episodes according to the seasons. The project developed around the themes of memory, travel, and the evocative power of photography. To get to know each other, we started by exchanging images of our domestic interiors: the life of things (episode 1). Beyond simple representations of objects, these images acted as levers for activating a conversation – defying the linearity of time – around past and present, inside and outside, life and death. What ensued, over the months, was a slow visual journey linking our respective landscapes to the era of a pandemic (episodes 2 and 3); the effect of time, neglect, and idleness (episode 4); uncertainties, despondency, and hopes (episodes 5 and 6); and the desire to travel and find oneself (episodes 7 and 8).

This visual conversation, that comprises 80 images, was accompanied by written reflections on and off Instagram as a form of knowing and listening to each other. Our dialogue followed the oppressive times of the pandemic and the aging of our families in an attempt to restore a sense of freedom and creativity. The context of Currents/Corrents offered us a channel that crossed geographical distance, through which we were able to exchange, cross paths, and influence each other.