HOSPITALITY 2: Gradually This Overview

2010

In this gallery work, we greet each visitor and ask them a consistent series of six questions, which they answer in writing on Post-it notes. We place the notes on the gallery walls. Gradually, a complex, collective portrait of thoughts unfolds in the space. Through examining the collected answers with visitor-participants, we come to understand, in a sort of overview, the main ideas emerging from the exchanges.

The questions we ask to the visitors are: How do you enjoy being difficult? How do you know when you are part of a community? What is one rule you love to break? Where is the vulnerability in power? How do you alter the system? What song most shaped your personality?

We encourage visitors to answer spontaneously and their answer must fit on a single Post-it. Answers remain anonymous. A column of Post-its corresponds to an individual (their answers to the six questions) and a row corresponds to the community of visitors (everyone’s answers to a question).

Through these hospitable actions, discussions emerge and connections are made. The entire gallery is covered in rows and rows of Post-its, gradually allowing a diversity of responses to crash into our attempt to arrive at a meaningful overview of some kind of community.

In 2016, the Montréal-based group projets hybris took this project and turned it into an interactive game with the public, as part of the international project Se la jouer, presented at the OFFTA.

This project is part of the HOSPITALITY cycle, an extended period of research on the theme of hospitality.

Montréal, Articule