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Around the Table, a participatory event organized by the Intervals Collective with the contribution of La Centrale galerie Powerhouse, explores food-related issues in an inclusive and decolonial manner. During its residency at La Centrale, Intervals encourages the sharing of individual and collective experiences with food through socially engaged events, presentations, workshops, and the invitation of artist collectives and food professionals.

Food, essential to our survival, holds a central place in our interactions and plays a key role in various traditions, cultures and rituals. Intervals aims to compile experiences that evoke both the personal memories of the audience and artists, as well as those connected to collective consciousness.

Simultaneously, the project examines production methods and working conditions within the food industries. By highlighting the importance of the labour carried out by agricultural workers, the Collective recognizes and values their active participation in the community ecosystem.

The outcome of this research on food will be showcased during a series of events where the audience will be invited to enjoy tea, while taking part in the following activities: sharing memories, drawing with spices, learning about traditional Mexican chocolate and the symbolism of bread in traditional festivities, delving into sugar culture, building an artistic vegetable garden, and crafting quick-response codes using plant-based inks.

Around the Table is an initiative integrated into La Centrale's Laboratory Programming, aiming to shed light on the works, research, and ideas of individuals from underrepresented communities. 

This special programming will occur during the months of February and May 2024.

This month, the Intervals Collective collaborates with courier-art (Noriko Tanaka and Miwa Kojima) to present Happy Hour, a socially engaged artistic event initiated by courier-art and artist Mica Funaki in 2000. Between 2000 and 2005, the Happy Hour project was featured in four different countries, collecting people's stories of moments of happiness. After an interruption of nearly twenty years, the project is reactivated at La Centrale galerie Powerhouse, inviting participants to share joyful memories involving food over tea and Japanese curry.

In May 2024, the Intervals Collective will organize a three-day event in the form of a three-course menu (appetizer, main, dessert). Each dish will feature a workshop/presentation by an artist or a food professional who utilizes food as a focal point in artistic or theoretical research. During the closing ceremony in June, project participants, including the audience and artists, will be invited to share a meal together and celebrate the conclusion of the program.

BIOGRAPHY

Intervals Collective is a collective of artists and cultural professionals interested in the social role of art in the diverse world. Through multiple activities, creation, production and artistic dissemination, the collective aims to embrace liminal spaces, and through social interactions and interventions, seeks to fill a void – a gap between communities, institutions and established structures. Intervals is the space of “in-between” and the conjuncture of different links that incites dialogues, and facilitates experiences and exchanges in relation with the world.

 Created in 2015, Intervals Collective brings together artists and cultural workers from Montreal’s ethno-cultural communities. Since its creation, the members of the collective have met regularly to exchange ideas, share experiences and plan artistic projects. These meetings have become an interval of creation and reflection that has greatly contributed to building a sense of community and belonging as Montreal artists, and the Collective aims to find ways to extend this experience to other individuals and communities. 

The members are Caroline Douville (artiste), Maria Ezcurra (artist), Dominique Fontaine (curator), Romeo Gongora (artist), Maria Hoyos (artist), Miwa Kojima (graphic designer/editor/artist) and Thi-My Truong (art historian/museologist).