today clement asked, « where are the off-site performances? » the question could be answered, « they are somewhere in montréal. » not a very satisfactory answer if what you want is to « see » « something. » but often the real answer to this question is between life and your imagination. for although you, clement, are the intended viewer, it is you clement as the pedestrian, as the passenger of the car that drives by, as the person looking out of the high-rise window of your office. it is the you that is not seeking to receive something that is named and packaged and framed. it is the you that walks through the streets and comes upon, by chance, the image that shifts you, that you take in and turn over in your mind…and perhaps don’t really register until two blocks away, or three months away, or never. it is the you that picks up that stray piece of paper blowing in the wind and reads the list of ingredients from someone’s shopping list, and the list becomes poetry for you, at that moment, in that context.

but this you, the chance encounter of you, is an encounter that the artist will carefully construct, will prepare for you. here, let me be specific, because today i had the honour of following, from a distance, the performer irene izquierdo as she went searching for spaces where she could insert her body.

irene is walking down sainte catherine street and i am following her. she has her camera with her. she is researching, searching, for architectural spaces where her body fits. when she finds a potential space she photographs the space, then she asks a passer-by if they will take a photo of her. everyone she asks says yes. she gives the person her camera, and then she arranges her body in the place where she can fit. for instance, the space between a bus shelter and the adjoining property. just enough space between for irene to lay her body down. or, the space where one building is next to another building and there is a gap between. here she turns her back to the person taking the photo, a man elegantly dressed in a dark suit, and faces the building.

this searching for spaces is the exploratory work and it has a sense of discovery about it. as i am following irene i too start to pay attention to where her body might fit. i notice spaces i would not have noticed, the space of the city registers itself differently. i pay attention to things i would not have paid attention to before. possibilities for bodily insertion open up in ways i would not have imagined before.

as i am following irene i notice a homeless person laying on a wide window ledge. knees drawn in, facing the street. dressed in a toque and coat. it is a muggy warm day. we talk, irene and i, about homelessness and alternate use of space. i imagine how it would be difficult for a viewer to differentiate between this deliberate shift of space use that irene is exploring and the homeless necessity of finding a place to sleep in, to be safe.

irene izquierdo positions her body in public spaces in such a way that her status as « proper, sane, citizens » could be called into question (and has been in the past when she performed work of this quality). this is a very vulnerable position to voluntarily put yourself in (it is also a vulnerable position to be thrust into through life circumstances.) the line between sane behavior and « insane » behavior is blurred. and although irene has a very clear and precise idea about why she is doing what it is she does, the resulting vulnerability is the same. bodies lying on the ground are vulnerable. bodies that occupy the marginal spaces of ledges and curbs and empty store entrances are suspect.

but why? why don’t we curl up on window sill ledges and take pleasure in exploring the spaces of the city which we occupy? why don’t we take these spaces and play with their possibilities? why have we become so conditioned to and subservient to the dictates of what architecture tells us to do? sit here, stand here, walk here. are we not imaginative creative beings?

irene izquierdo is taking the chance, her body shows us.

irene izquierdo: http://ireneizquierdo.wordpress.com