For the whole of 2023-2024, Anouk Verviers has been commissioned to develop a new body of works embedded in a new intervention art project at the University Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQO), as part of Patrice Loubier's curatorial intervention at the UQO Gallery.

Si deux consonnes forment un angle aigu, il suffit de l’arrondir légèrement follows on from the artist's research into the education system since 2018. (...) Anouk Verviers is interested in the obsolete art of shorthand as a starting point to explore the zones of passivity and action that mark our relationships with the complex institutions surrounding us. As a starting point, the artist intervenes in the University, attending two series of meetings: those of the executives of the Vice-Rectorate for Research, Creation, Partnerships and Internationalisation of the UQO (VRRCPI), and those of the UQO Gallery team.

As an observer admitted to these meetings, Anouk Verviers uses a shorthand method that she has specially developed to enable her to record the form and tone of the exchanges rather than to generate a word-to-word transcription of what has been said (as this abbreviated transcription technique is used in courts of law or the Canadian Senate, for example). The shorthand symbols she developed transcribe ‘modes of interactions’ rather than words, ‘that is, attitudes, tones of voice, exchanged glances, modes of address’, as the artist explains.

Throughout the year, the anonymised transcripts of these meetings, the actions taken by the artist within the University, and her research with the community will inspire a new series of works and ‘conversation drawings’. The artist will complete several stays in residence at the University, and the project will culminate in a group exhibition at the UQO Gallery in May-June 2025, reflecting Patrice Loubier’s entire commissioning process and curatorial intervention.


Text translated from UQO Gallery's press release in French (Read the original press release)

The project and body of works was commissioned by curator Patrice Loubier and UQO Gallery, and is under development.

The artist thanks the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec for its financial support.

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