A Dance for Those of Us Whose Hearts Have Turned to Ice, Based on the Choreography of Françoise Sullivan and the Sculpture of Barbara Hepworth (With Sign-Language Supplement)
2007
Vidéo (DVD), couleur, muet, 8 min 35 s

A Dance for Those of Us Whose Hearts Have Turned to Ice et Album III
(Version française)

May 25 to August 31, 20088
Preview: May 25, 2008, 2 p.m.

Today we are struggling to rebuild the world. The instrument of our salvation is instinct, that instinct so long imprisoned, and part of our effort now must be to unearth it. Happily, these are vital needs, irresistible forces. We must organize ourselves for liberation, to rediscover giddiness and love. We must delve into the depths of our humanity. The real and profound treasure hidden in our subconscious is cosmic energy, the driving force of our actions.

From May 25 to August 31, 2008, the Musée d’art de Joliette will present an exhibition of the Canadian artist Luis Jacob. In the first installation, A Dance for Those of Us Whose Hearts Have Turned to Ice, composed of three videos and a pamphlet, the artist explores the relationship between abstraction of form in sculpture and the human figure in dance. Inspired by the sculpture of British artist Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975) and the choreography Dance in the Snow by the Quebec multidisciplinary artist Françoise Sullivan (1925- ), A Dance for Those of Us Whose Hearts Have Turned to Ice is an invitation to ponder some fundamental questions.

This performance, inspired by the oeuvre of these two icons of art history, is shown in a video screening framed by two TV monitors, on which two interpreters translate the words of Sullivan and de Hepworth into sign language. The installation is accompanied by a leaflet containing the texts written by the two artists. What Luis Jacob offers in A Dance for Those of Us Whose Hearts Have Turned to Ice is also a meditation on various forms of communication: that of the plastic arts, gesture, sign language and written language.

This investigation of language continues with Album III, a series of 159 panels composed of illustrations taken from a range of publications. This approach suggests associations that take the place of narratives. It is a process of reconstruction that resembles the approach of a visitor to an art exhibition. These two works have appeared in numerous international exhibitions, most notably at Documenta 12 in Kassel in 2007.

Born in 1970 in Peru, Luis Jacob moved to Toronto, where he still lives. He is studying philosophy and semiology at the University of Toronto. In addition to exhibiting widely, he is a curator, a publisher of books on artists and a writer.