Extramural Conference | Multifunctional studio, DAÏMÔN
Salon #6 — utopies
Anne Lardeux + Amélie-Anne Mailhot + La Quadrature
- Extramural Conference
- CRITS conference
Salon #6 — utopies is presented in collaboration with DAÏMÔN, as the closing event of the conference Imagining and Creating Other Possible Worlds: Engaged Arts, Emergencies, Utopias, organized by the Centre de recherche sur les innovations et les transformations sociales (CRITS) in collaboration with SAW, L’espace DEP Sylvestre and AXENÉO7.
The event takes place in DAÏMÔN’s multifunctional studio, accessible via the main entrance of AXENÉO7 at 80 Hanson Street (La Filature).
As a prelude to the event, a discussion moderated by Édith Brunette and Philippe Néméh‑Nombré (CRITS) will bring together the artists of vert soleil green sun — Sarah Chouinard‑Poirier, Kinga Michalska and AM Trépanier, at 4:45 p.m.
Free admission.
Free parking.
Dinner prepared by the hosts and beverages served throughout the evening.
Limited seating.
For the sixth edition of its Salon series, AXENÉO7 partners with DAÏMÔN and CRITS and welcomes Anne Lardeux and Amélie‑Anne Mailhot, alongside La Quadrature — a contemporary storytelling collective made up of Paul Bradley, Kevin Gravier, Céline Jantet and Nicolas Rochette — for a shared meal where hospitality sets the tone for collective reflection and the table becomes a place to exchange knowledge and experience.
Building on the exhibition vert soleil green sun by Sarah Chouinard‑Poirier, Kinga Michalska and AM Trépanier, and on the conference Imagining and Creating Other Possible Worlds, AXENÉO7 will look at how utopias unfold across different timelines — from bodies to territories — and the plurality of forms they take.
Throughout the evening, Anne Lardeux and Amélie‑Anne Mailhot, with Les présents de la description (« J’adore pas ça, moi, le futur ») [The Presents of Description ("I’m Not Big on the Future")], will consider the thresholds of utopia — the tense, imperfect zones that mark, test and reveal the contours of what we hope to reach. Picking up the conference and exhibition themes without being bound to them, they will trace crossovers and shifts between forms, times and places, like extracting an ice core to read its layers.
The banquet closes with a performance by La Quadrature, followed by karaoke hosted by Matelot Max.
Rooted in a tradition of oral history and the sharing of knowledge, AXENÉO7’s Salons offer a different approach to mediating contemporary art. They bring people to the table—guests, artists, researchers, scholars, enthusiasts, neighbours, friends and families—to exchange around a common topic. Each Salon is organized around a theme and curated guests.
During the Salons, invited participants present interventions, readings, and performances that braid together the themes under discussion, artistic practices, knowledges, and lived experience, opening spaces for reflection, discussion, and critique. All are welcome to take part: to intervene, to exchange, to question and—together with us—to make centre otherwise.
Acknowledgements
Salon #6 — utopies has been made possible through the collaboration and support of DAÏMÔN and its team. AXENÉO7 extends warm thanks to CRITS and to Édith Brunette for inviting us to take part in the conference Imagining and Creating Other Possible Worlds: Engaged Arts, Emergencies, Utopias, and for the mutual resonances and shared affinities that have nourished the preparation and unfolding of this Salon.
Biographies
Anne Lardeux
Anne Lardeux lives in Montreal, a name that obliterates others. She keeps an online journal (lanuitlennuie.tumblr.com) and has also written for Liberté, Hors-Champ, Le Merle, Sabir, Le Sabord, and Les cahiers des impossibles. She has published a novel, Les mauvais plis (Oie de Cravan, 2021), translated into English , The Second Substance (Coach House Books, 2022). Another is forthcoming, also from Oie (2026). In it, she shifts the scene to the studio and makes 1,000 trays shimmer, using homemade special effects to describe both the material life and the libidinal circuits that drive it. She herself works as a psychosocial worker at Club Ami, a therapeutic day center located in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood.
Amélie-Anne Mailhot
Amélie-Anne Mailhot writes texts and conducts research in the form of descriptive investigations into the political depth of our relationships with living beings in all their forms, and our consequent ways of dreaming and inhabiting space. She also advocates for rights in an independent community organization and gardens in a forest in the Outaouais region—among many other activities, but never anything full-time.
La Quadrature
La Quadrature is a collective dedicated to contemporary storytelling. Its projects focus on exploring different forms of storytelling, while considering the act of storytelling as a socio-political expression where speaking is as important as listening. La Quadrature likes to take risks, both on stage and in public spaces or on the web, always going beyond disciplinary boundaries. The collective's creations have received several awards and have travelled throughout America and Europe.
Partners
