ACE COLLABORATING WITH ARTISTS OLIVE MARTIN AND PATRICK BERNIER IN NANTES AND LA ROCHELLE (FRANCE) IN AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER 2024

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Ace participating in a five week international collaborative project with artists Olive Martin and Patrick Bernier in Nantes and La Rochelle (France) in August and September 2024.

Ace’s new collaborative project Bskaabwidmaagen (return something back to its owner) in France is an extension of his previous work undertaken in Canada and Switzerland addressing two key domestic and international documents: Canada’s Residential Schools’ Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s – 94 Calls to Action and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.In 2023, Ace participated in the Les Rencontre decoloniales in La Rochelle, France.

The impetus for the Les Rencontre decoloniales project dates back to 2018, when Catherine Sicot (Elegoa Cultural Productions) was invited to La Rochelle by the Centre Intermondes for a residency. La Rochelle and its neighbouring city of Nantes (amongst others like Bordeaux) carry the legacy of modern times – major ports of commerce on the Triangle Trade – with New France, and the base of plantation owners whose lineages are still a part of the contemporary economic powers and wealth.

In view of the abundant and diverse Indigenous heritage in La Rochelle museums, Indigenous and Canadian artists and curators were invited to the join the Les Rencontre decoloniales  project for a 10-day residency at the Centre Intermondes in January 2023. Collaborations with La Rochelle museum professionals, artists, arts organizations and the university were initiated on the understanding that Eurocentric perceptions of Indigenous identities needed to shift, and that the inventory of  traditional Heritage and knowledge needed to be made accessible to Indigenous communities. As a result of the 2023 visit, the Mobile Decolonial Do Tank (MDDT) was realized.

The repatriation of Indigenous sacred cultural property housed in museum collections in La Rochelle and Nantes, France is both complex and challenging and much work is needed to bring important institutions, key individuals, and Indigenous peoples together to begin meaningful conversations around this important issue. The proposed collaborative project Bskaabwidmaagen (return something back to its owner) and participant workshops will provide an important opportunity for institutions, artists, students, and an Indigenous artist to come together to speak to these complex issues of repatriation while working together on a collaborative artwork. With funding from Canada Council for the Arts in support of this Elegoa collaborative project, it aligns with Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action #83: We call upon the Canada Council for the Arts to establish, as a funding priority, a strategy for Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists to undertake collaborative projects and produce works that contribute to the reconciliation process.

For the La Rochelle and Nantes collaborative project, Ace will be working with artists Olive Martin and Patrick Bernier as co-creators, along with the participation of museum curators/directors, arts administrators, and art and law students as contributors in the completion a new contemporary textile-based trans-Atlantic wampum belt. Wampum belts are mnemonic visual agreements or treaties utilized by both the Rotinonhsyón:nih and Anishinaabeg peoples of the Americas. The work Bskaabwidmaagen (return something back to its owner) is a contemporary mnemonic textile device to instil dialogue and heighten the awareness for international Nation States to begin to seriously address the complex issues surrounding cultural repatriation of sacred material culture from both a domestic and international perspective. The work is on-going, as future international collaborations with Indigenous artists will add their voice and motifs in response to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and repatriation.

Patrick Bernier & Olive Martin who are currently based in Nantes, France, have worked collaboratively for many years and have created a diverse body of work traversing writing, performance, installation, photography and film. Throughout their longstanding career, their artistic projects and creations have touched upon colonial history, human rights, migrations, and identity. As accomplished weavers, Olive and Patrick bring integral artist agency to this collaborative textile project. The complex act of creating a textile work together addressing repatriation speaks to the entanglement of our colonial histories between France and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, and how do we as contemporary artists negotiate a shared ownership and responsibility for stewardship of a jointly created contemporary work of art. Olive and Patrick have designed a houseboat-atelier  – La Déparleuse – as visual artists-weavers in the heart of Nantes traversing the river networks.

Directly following three weeks of collaborative work, Ace will undertake a series of collaborative workshops with invited museum curators, directors, arts administrators, artists and students at Centre intermondes in La Rochelle. These working sessions will be an opportunity for round table discussions and completion of individual small scale works that will be added to the Bskaabwidmaagen (return something back to its owner) contemporary artwork.

About the work

Bskaabwidmaagen (return something back to its owner)

 

Bskaabwidmaagen (return something back to its owner)

 

Bskaabwidmaagen (return something back to its owner)

 

Bsaakwabwidmaagan (return something back to its owner) is an ongoing collaborative woven contemporary belt that is designed to be exhibited on a loom and added to by international Indigenous contributors who will create their own visual mnemonic coded motifs based on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), including repatriation of sacred material culture.

As a component of the woven loomed work, a collaborative workshop accompanies each international contributor to the woven belt. Beaded medallions are created based on one of the 46 articles of UNDRIP and placed in a new vessel below the woven work that will extend forward. The partially beaded medallions with vellum scrolls acknowledge that the work regarding the implementation of UNDRIP is not finished.

Bsaakwabwidmaagan (return something back to its owner) is considered an animate work and the loom itself can be metaphorically viewed as a animated orator. The mechanisms or programs that create the motifs; the two devices that vertically lift and separate the warp, the comb through which the warp passes; and the shuttle which travels through the separated warps add the weft to complete the pattern. All of these components when viewed together can be seen as the mouth, jaw, teeth and tongue of the loom and the resulting woven work is the voice of the loom telling its story.

The woven belt draws its inspiration from wampum belts of the Anishinaabeg. The woven belt appears upside down and abstracted when viewed from the top. As the loomed work extends below, the motifs become visible. The belt is to be read right to left and as conversations are added, it will extend directly below.  The vessel with the shaman and thunder birds protect the beaded UNDRIP floral medallions that are affixed with handwritten scrolls and a tobacco tie. Tobacco is a sacred medicine of the Anishinnabeg, and its medicine communicates directly with the Creator.

Coloured coated electronic wire fringe extends out from the woven belt and connects the vessel and medallions. These wires originated from a black beaded floral motif panel that is the start of the work. A fully beaded four-petal flower is the same design as on the beaded medallions, and transforms into electronic component floral work, bringing the work into a contemporary context.

The electronic component beaded panel leads directly into a woven circuit board pattern that is both contemporary and traditional in appearance. It speaks to our ability to communicate globally, regarding issues pertaining to repatriation and digital capabilities to share information on international museum collections.

Directly following the woven circuit board, the textile ground changes to blue. The blue ground represents the Atlantic Ocean that separates Turtle Island and France.

Running along the top and bottom is a border that frames the work is the mnemonic signatures of the collaborating artists. Ace is represented by his clan symbol the Nigig (Otter), and Martin and Bernier are represented by their spirit symbol, the Bat.  There is a brief empty blue segment at the onset of the signatures that speak to the artists’ early electronic communication across the water when discussing the collaboration.

The beginning of the motif represents the collaborative process that began in Nantes, France,  where the artists had to devise and negotiate a unique visual language to speak to the concept of repatriation and negotiation for the return of Indigenous (Anishinaabeg) scared cultural patrimony.

They chose to begin the mnemonic code with two Anishinaabe symbols encompassing art and power: the Thunderbird and Mishibijiw – the Thunderbird represents the sky world, while the underworld is represented by the cascading octagon motifs and central rectangular line which is the geometric representation of the Mishibijiw the Underwater Panther who is depicted disturbing the water from just below the surface. These two sacred symbols represent a balance of power, through their on-going battle between the sky-world and under-world. Four morning stars offer guidance and represent the ancestors and the four directions.

The next motif is the canoe and the seven Anishinaabe grandfathers who each represent one of the seven sacred teachings: Respect, Wisdom, Honesty, Truth, Love, Humility, and Bravery. These are the guiding principles or virtues for guiding the process surrounding repatriation. Floating directly above in a cloud formation are two eyes that watch over the process, while the Mishibijiw to the left can still impact the waters to restore balance.

Connected to the canoe by rope is the sacred bundle that contains sacred cultural patrimony housed in international museum collections. Directly below the sacred bundle is the sacred pipe which represents a contractual agreement, while the burning of tobacco medicine communicates directly with the Creator, while purifying the sacred bundle.

The right side of the bundle is attached to a French river boat that is Martin and Bernier’s atelier. This binding of vessels to the bundle represents the connection between France, the artists and the Anishinaabe, regarding the return and protection of sacred objects.  The eye to the left of the river boat gazes to the future.

The next two motifs represents a demonstrable example on how to balance two opposing sides over disagreement. The bottom symbol refers to the wampum agreement between the Anishinaabeg and Rotinonhsyón:nih – Dish with One Spoon. This is a negotiated agreement for accessing, sharing and protection of resources and a call to take only what is needed in shared territories. The top vertical and horizontal line symbol is an electronic motif representing the current environmental movement in France that has become controversial. “In electrical schematics, this symbol designates a “ground” connection, where an electrical circuit offloads additional charge into the earth before it short-circuits. But in this context, the motif represents Les Soulevements de la Terre (Earth Uprisings) or SLT, a collective of environmental activists whose movement has attracted much less international attention than its counterparts and yet has garnered the strongest governmental response.

Juxtaposed against the Dish with One Spoon motif, the SLT motif is a demonstrable example that difficult disagreements have the potential to be resolved and come to a mutually beneficial agreement.

The motifs of the Thunderbird and Mishibijiw reappears as bookends to the coded narrative and captures the repatriation conversation between artists. This is followed by a second electronic circuitboard motif that can be read that if one component in a circuit is damaged then the circuit does not function or becomes dysfunctional. But like in an electronic circuit a damaged component can be fixed bringing the circuit back to a functioning state.

Following the circuit board motif is a symbol created by Ace, Martin and Bernier to represent weaving and communication. The 5 horizontal wave pattern represents the weft and are symbolic of the the five people closely involved in the collaborative work: Catherine Sicot (Elegoa), Laurence Guérault (Film-maker), Olive Martin (Artist), Patrick Bernier (Artist) and Barry Ace (Artist). A blank woven blue ground is inserted to conclude the collabortive segment as an intention pause between the Ace, Martin and Bernier conversation and the activation for the next collaboration.

Since the work is on-going, future indigenous collaborators will continue this conversation with new motifs addressing the articles of UNDRIP, including reparation.

Bsaakwabwidmaagan (return something back to its owner) remains animate, activated and infinite, intentionally troubling not only the ownership of the work, but also how this work would fit into a museum’s collection and the fact that future artists will touch and transform the work. This work has been realized to travel as an international call to action for the implementation of UNDRIP in all global nation states.

Articles:

Read Brian Phillips’s  “Making Art from a Human Rights Standard”

For information on Ace’s international and domestic collaborative work addressing human rights standards, see the following projects:

The artist acknowledges the generous support of Elegoa Cultural Productions, Art Rights Truth and Centre Intermondes

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