Relire relier

With Relire relier, poet and performer Catherine Lalonde invites us into the intimacy of her writing for a performance reading of her entire body of work.

“Poet and performer Catherine Lalonde opens her mouth wide and swallows everything, from the first word to the last sentence, from Jeux de brume (1991, Loup de Gouttière) to Trous (2024, Le Quartanier). Tiny bubbles of saliva escape, an echo joins the breath, and the tongue—expandable, extinguishable—snaps. At once a feast of writing, a stripping bare, and an ignition, Relire relier delivers the hours of writing in an act of shared speech. The elastic voice and mouth bear witness to the paper: notebooks of poems, publishing contracts, drawings, and typescripts lie jumbled on a work surface in the shadow of turned pages. The author notes the comings and goings of the guests, pours them tea, then perhaps removes her shoes, her socks: the heart beats freely. Natural gestures spread to the hands, fingers, sometimes feet. The word becomes the sole unit of measure; matter promised to such an undertaking.” — Annie Lafleur

Relire relier was created in 2016 at the Leonard & Bina Ellen Gallery, Concordia University, at the invitation of Sophie Bélair-Clément and Marie Claire Forté as part of their exhibition I’d rather something ambiguous. But precise at the same time.

The Festival International de la Littérature and l’Agora de la danse invite Catherine Lalonde to revisit the performance, adding a reading of her latest book. The act becomes a ritual of emergence from writing.

Photo credit © Philippe Renaud