Artistic practice as selfcare or care for others

PhD, Art studies and practices, University of Quebec in Montreal

Supervisors: Claire Savoie and Eduardo Ralickas

2012 - 2018

My thesis (both practical and theoretic) comprises two parts: a written dissertation and a video and sound installation entitled Traversée (Traversing). It offers reflections based on personal artistic strategies developed thanks to video and sound recordings throughout my daily life. This was done by using overlay editing (both in the editing room and in the exhibition space). This practice aims at achieving subjectivity, being the basis of "care for oneself and others" ethics, through the process of creation. Focused on methods of production as well as artistic patterns, the core problematic challenges the "constitution of self". So, whether by writing or by manual labour, my goal is to reflect on my actions as part of my thesis in relation to other theoretical methods and approaches. As far as methodology is concerned, I apply theories by philosophers John Dewey and Michel Foucault. Their proses echo my interest in lived experiences as well as the subject's genealogy. 

In this thesis, I establish strong links between my thoughts and those, specifically, of Michel Foucault, who considers daily work on oneself as an artwork. Throughout four chapters my primary concerns comprise what this postulate signifies, particularly creation's ethical, aesthetic and political dimensions. 

My artistic labour has taken the form of an installation: five videos projected on five Plexiglas screens and, in the same space, five audio tracks broadcasted on loudspeakers. This was presented from the 1st to the 8th of September, 2016 at the Agora Hydro-Québec in Montreal. 

Keywords: research-creation, questioning, everyday, recording, framing, editing, superimposition, transparency, memory, Michel Foucault, care for oneself and others, arts of existence, constitution of oneself.