Edon DescollinesJoe Jack et JohnLe trou noir
© Edon Descollines, view of the performance Le magasin ferme, 2021. Photo: Marie Sebire
Edon Descollines creates his own verbal, corporeal, visual and sonic language from colorful lists of seemingly disconnected elements in his notebooks. These free-flowing lists are written outside any framework, and respond to no logic, no requirements. “These are words that live in my head, they come to me. There’s no judgment in these words. They make sense, they’re sweet to hear.” This constellation of words is a guide on the path the artist is trying to trace between memory and oblivion, shadow and light, between himself… and nothingness?
A second point of departure is added to these enumerations in Edon’s process: an infinite number of recordings that document his daily life. Relentlessly, he captures the sounds that surround him, the questions that inhabit him, the thoughts that animate him and the sensations that run through him. These archives are multifunctional: they occupy his daily life and provide material for his future creations. They are also, perhaps, a way of circumscribing his identity and understanding who he is? “I spend all my time recording myself, I don’t know what I’m recording anymore. I think I’m trying to record everything that’s inside me.”
Thanks to these processes of accumulation, he lifts the veil on his existential questioning: “How can I use my brain if I become Alzheimer, so as not to forget who I am?” This question, which recurs like a leitmotif, inevitably echoes creative work: is a work of art a way of leaving a trace of one’s human existence, so as not to sink into oblivion or disappear into the depths of a black hole?
© Edon Descollines, view of the performance Le magasin ferme, 2021. Photo: Marie Sebire
Since 2019, Joe Jack and John has instituted an artistic leadership program that enables artists living with an intellectual difference to initiate and direct a creation of their own. Following a two-year artistic residency, Edon Descollines presented the performance Le magasin ferme (MAI, 2021), the first stage work carried by a neurodivergent artist to be presented on a professional stage in Quebec. Edon’s most recent project at OBORO is entitled Le trou noir. As with his first performance, Edon is artistically accompanied by Emma-Kate Guimond, in the role of “creative ally”. In this collaboration, Emma-Kate becomes an accomplice to Edon, who calls on her to facilitate the expression of his ideas and the exploration of various creative materials. A second ally is added to the process in the person of sound designer Arthur Champagne.
To find out more about our artistic leadership program and the role of creative ally: https://joejacketjohn.com/en/artistic-leadership/
Joe Jack et John is a theatre company that produces original, bilingual, multidisciplinary shows combining video, dance, and the spoken word. Our artistic approach is deeply humanistic and inclusive; our creations represent a social microcosm by collaborating with neurodivergent actors or performers from diverse backgrounds.
We favour devised creation for projects that centre on current social issues. The uniqueness of our artistic teams is as much about aesthetic research as it is about promoting human encounters: we aim to lift up rarely-heard voices; to encourage reflection on contemporary issues; and to move the social conversation forward through art.
