QUITE OURSELVES ?
“In the street we are no longer ‘quite ourselves’
- instead we become ‘functions of the urban landscape’.
Whereas once we were the objects of the gaze,
as street haunters we become observing entities, desexed, ungendered.”
From Flaneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and London By Lauren Elkin
At Quite Ourselves, we aim to create both physical and virtual spaces for minority artists in Montreal/Canada to promote the independence and survival of our art practices. Furthermore, our goal is to communicate with the local art community via the active promotion, collaboration, and exchange of artworks. Through this, we attempt to establish a bridge among a diverse array of cultures and disciplines.
In terms of art practices, we attempt to bring up experimental shapes of being an artist collective/ artist-run center. Moving Trailer in October 2017 was its first example that conveys unfinished works on a mobile venue - a moving truck. This mobile exhibition emphasizes the alternative importance that we, at Quite Ourselves, would like to carry on in favour of creating an extra space for minority artists, who may not be eligible for grants and/or whatnot, because of specific limitations derived from nationality and ethnicity. Meanwhile, we also believe in work-in-progress works can be eligible to be shared in public. It is because work-in-progress signifies our immigrants’ social status, which is stuck in between the idea of eligibility and ineligibility.
Although we call ourselves "minorities," there are spaces and times that do not require the encounter with a majority to exist. Art-making can serve as a mediator, a mirror to define ourselves without the Other. This is achieved through focusing on experimental practices, pushing towards an unconcreteness, and deconstructing notions of completion.
There are spaces and times that do not require the encounter with a majority to exist. Art-making can serve as a mediator, a mirror to define ourselves without the Other. This is achieved through focusing on experimental practices, pushing towards an unconcreteness, and deconstructing notions of completion.
︎ quiteourselves@gmail.com
︎ @QuiteOurselves
︎ quite ourselves
We began in Mooniyang/Tiohtià:ke/Montreal in 2017. At the moment, all of our active members are spread around the world, including different cities in Canada, Hong Kong, Australia, South Korea, and others. We advocate a thin, shifting, and ever-changing definition of “active members.”