collecting is addictive – Joey Lees-Cantel

My body spent thirteen years listening to and reproducing what the voice echoing in the middle of this square dictated, not mine, but that of the men who trained me. Deconstruct, learn, repeat, integrate, exhaust myself in order to better defeat what stands opposite in the “magic square”. It is therefore in this square, ring, which I haveworn down with time, that I gathered routine, ritual, care, sweat, and familiarity to rebuild and represent the tool that was my body, in service of the noble art and its modern kings.

Mon corps a passé treize ans à écouter et reproduire ce que dicte la voix qui résonne au milieu de ce carré, non pas la mienne mais celle de ces hommes qui m’ont entraînée. Déconstruire, apprendre, répéter, intégrer, épuiser pour mieux battre ce qui est en face dans le carré magique. C’est donc dans ce carré, que j’ai cerclé à l’usure, que j’ai rassemblé routine, rituel, soin, sueur et familiarités pour reconstituer l’outil qu’était mon corps au service du noble art et souverains modernes.

The meeting point was outside our annex building, and I called them through a window upstairs for them to come up and meet me. After greeting everyone, I kicked things off with an icebreaker—a group translation of the Patti Smith song « Gloria. » I had printed the lyrics and laid them out on the chimney, asking each person to translate one word. To guide them upstairs and show them my friends’ artworks, we played a game of “I Spy.” As we moved through the exhibit, transitioning from one student’s work to another, I kept the energy up with either a game suggestion or a group discussion. When we left the annex to see the final part of our exhibit projected on the building wall across from us, I handed out postcards featuring memories of the building that had meant so much to us over the years. I asked everyone to write a postcard as a way of saying goodbye.

Song credits to Patti Smith

Catégorie : collecting is addictive

her body is « time! »

Bye bye annex mediation