Rehearsing Catastrophe: An Ark for Mons

BACKGROUND This project is research in Visual Art, (video installation) I am the artist/researcher who created it. This artwork for the 'Migratory Complex' exhibition at Maison Folie, for the Mons European Capital of Culture festival 2015, proposes that the site, participants and local circumstances not only inform the poetics of this artwork but constitute the central materials in its creation. CONTRIBUTION It challenges support for 'site-specific' art by much community art theory, supporting Mirwon Kwon's influential thesis on its transferability and a 'Three Ecologies' approach to environmental issues as discussed by Felix Guattari. To this it adds a feminist lens. After changes made to a recent work in Bath by reactions of performers to the Charlie Hebdo murders in Paris, this work focused on the vulnerability to terrorist attack of strategic sites around Mons (NATO war headquarters, Google database, chemical site, a boat lift for a major canal above the city and the central cathedral).The roof of Maison Folie became the 'Ark'. A local videographer, Amelie Kestermans, shot and edited the video made with volunteer performers to create an installation of 3 video screens and large projection. The work enabled me to work with a skilled local videographer to create a pertinent, performative work in French for exhibition. SIGNIFICANCE The exhibition represented Melbourne (as Australia) for the festival of Mons and was seen by over a thousand local people and visitors. Funding for my contribution was from the Australia Council (Australia's peak funding body for the Arts) and from Mons Capital of Culture.