About

PME-ART—which refers, among other things, to Pretty Much Everything—is a loosely defined Montréal-based interdisciplinary group. Through explorations and innovations over the last twenty plus years, we have consistently partnered with other artists to devise new collaborative projects, giving rise to unusual performances that combine theatre, music, literature, visual art, poetry, and philosophy, based on both theoretical and practical research.

Full of paradoxes and contradictions, the work is often destabilizing. Such destabilization is not only about art; it echoes the social and personal discomfort so often encountered in daily life. We believe acknowledging uncomfortable realities (instead of pretending they are not there) is of fundamental importance to developing generous and unpredictable critical approaches.

Mandate

Through performances, installation, public process, and theoretical and practical research, the Montréal-based interdisciplinary group PME-ART confronts its contemporary practice via local, national and international artistic collaborations. Combining creation, exploration, critical reflection, dissemination and casual yet significant interactions with various audiences, the work is an ongoing process of questioning the world, finding the courage to say things about the current predicament that are direct and complex, and interrogating performance.

Performing as ourselves, we create actions, conditions and speech executed with a singular intimacy and familiarity. This intimacy reduces the separation between performer and spectator, opening a space for thinking, tension, reflection, and productive confusion. Within this space, we present meticulously prepared material in a manner that is open and loose, sliding towards the unexpected, towards a sense of connection with whatever the audience brings.

Full of paradoxes and contradictions, the work is often destabilizing. Such destabilization is not only about art; it echoes the social and personal discomfort so often encountered in daily life. We believe the acknowledging of uncomfortable realities (instead of pretending they are not there) is of fundamental importance to developing generous and unpredictable critical approaches.

We are deeply engaged with the ethical and political challenges that arise when working collaboratively, searching for a delicate balance between the performers’ essential freedom (to create the thinking, physicality and substance of the work) and the rigour necessary to structure and gradually refine the material over the course of the process.

Drawing considerably upon theatre, literature, music, dance, visual art, critical theory, philosophy, and cinema, such influences are never entirely direct, always infiltrating our practice from personal, unexpected angles.

Our style may seem fragmented and in many ways, reflects the fragmented times in which we live. Our work generates a deeply human experience with a foundation in basic yet ephemeral realities: people working together, dealing with the public, simply trying to figure things out.

Historic

PME-ART’s past works include the performances Every Song I’ve Ever Written, HOSPITALITY 3: Individualism Was A Mistake and HOSPITALITY 5: The DJ Who Gave Too Much Information, the installation-performances Adventures can be found anywhere, même dans la mélancolie and HOSPITALITY 2: Gradually This Overview, as well as the shows En français comme en anglais, it’s easy to criticize, Unrehearsed Beauty/Le Génie des autres and Families Are Formed Through Copulation/La famille se crée en copulant. Since 1998, our creations have been presented in various venues and festivals, in more than fifty-five cities in Québec, Canada, Europe, Japan and the United States. PME-ART was nominated for the Conseil des arts de Montréal’s 27th Grand Prix.

Board

Burcu Emeç, Chairperson
Jacob Wren, Co-Chairperson
Yves Sheriff, Treasurer
Robin Simpson, Secretary
Po B. K. Lomami, Administrator
Richard Ducharme, Administrator
Fabien Marcil, Administrator
Sylvie Lachance, Administrator

Team

Sylvie Lachance, Artistic Codirector, info@pme-art.ca
Jacob Wren, Artistic Codirector, jwren@axxent.ca
Nicoleta Stoodley, Administrative Assistant

Web site development:
Development and writing Fabien Marcil, Jacob Wren, Kamissa Ma Koïta, Sylvie Lachance and Burcu Emeç / Translation and editing Marie Claire Forté / Graphic design Kamissa Ma Koïta / Video editing Muhammad El Khairy and Kamissa Ma Koïta / Web integration and additional design Andira Hernandez Ramdwar / Consultants LOKI and Agence Champ Libre / Postcards in the homepage video Principal (Patrick Pellerin)