Eddy Firmin Lawond
© Eddy Firmin, 2023
Opening on Saturday, September 16, 2023 at 5 pm
Eddy Firmin is interested in the politics of knowledge sharing, and in the epistemic conflicts they generate in colonized artists.
“Lawond” refers to a circle of participants in Gwoka and Bélè (a French West Indian practice between art and life, linking dance, song, storytelling and music in order to resist colonial violence). More than a mere circle, “lawond” is a spatial device into which sensitive and formal modes of knowledge are randomly thrown.
The public is invited to “hold a salon” in the space of the Lawond exhibition: to read, drink coffee, and engage in discussion. Taking on the attributes of a cabinet of curiosities, the space participates in the constitution of new collections, notably by gathering life testimonies as well as negrophobic objects of the everyday (such as black lawn jockeys, derivative products in the fashion of Aunt Jemima or Uncle Ben's, etc.).
Dealing with racism and the exploitation of bodies, Lawond is an evolving project that draws on collective archives from yesterday to today. Through participatory and reparative activities that engage with a plurality of media (sculpture, video, photography, installation), Lawond presents some of the narratives involved in co-constructing the artist's experience as an Afro-descendant in Canada.
The artist would like to thank Mélanie Arseneault, Audrey Bilodeau Fontaine, Vanessa Caraman Firmin, Géraldine Entiope, Ora-Laleen Firmin, Clairnita Lafleur, Morgan Légaré, Geneviève Parent, Mike Patten, Sonja Zlatanova, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the entire OBORO team.
© Eddy Firmin, 2023
Born and bred in the French Caribbean (Guadeloupe), Eddy Firmin is an artist-researcher and speaker who lives and works in Montréal (Canada). He holds a PhD in Études et pratiques des arts from the Université du Québec à Montréal (Canada) and a Master’s degree from l’École Supérieure d’Art et Design le Havre-Rouen (France). He coordinates the publication of the decolonial magazine Minorit’Art. His visual artwork questions the transcultural logics of his identity and the power imbalances at play. On a theoretical level, he works on a Méthode Bossale, a proposal for the decolonization of the imaginary in art.
Tamar Tembeck, PhD, is an art historian with a professional background as a performing artist, writer, and exhibition curator. Tamar notably coedited the publications Caroline Gagné: Donner corps à l’insaisissable / Embodying the Intangible (OBORO), The Participatory Condition in the Digital Age (U. of Minnesota Press) and Conflict[ed] Reporting (Photography & Culture). Tamar is involved in both research and research-creation projects at the intersection of art and medicine, with collaborators stemming from diverse artistic and scientific disciplines. At OBORO, she has held the positions of General and Artistic Director (from 2018 to 2020) and Artistic Director (since 2020).
© Eddy Firmin, view from the exhibition Lawond, 2023. Photo: Mike Patten.
© Eddy Firmin, view from the exhibition Lawond, 2023. Photo: Mike Patten.
© Eddy Firmin, view from the exhibition Lawond, 2023. Photo: Mike Patten.
© Eddy Firmin, view from the exhibition Lawond, 2023. Photo: Mike Patten.
© Eddy Firmin, view from the exhibition Lawond, 2023. Photo: Mike Patten.
© Eddy Firmin, view from the exhibition Lawond, 2023. Photo: Mike Patten.
© Eddy Firmin, view from the exhibition Lawond, 2023. Photo: Mike Patten.
© Eddy Firmin, view from the exhibition Lawond, 2023. Photo: Mike Patten.
© Eddy Firmin, view from the exhibition Lawond, 2023. Photo: Mike Patten.
© Eddy Firmin, view from the exhibition Lawond, 2023. Photo: Mike Patten.
© Eddy Firmin, view from the exhibition Lawond, 2023. Photo: Mike Patten.
© Eddy Firmin, view from the exhibition Lawond, 2023. Photo: Mike Patten.
