Hélène Doyon and Jean-Pierre Demers came together as Doyon/Demers in 1987. Their work comprises performance art, “manœuvres” and installations in the form of participative events. They also create devices described as in situ and in socius which lead them to reflect upon their roles in the world of art. These pieces question the image of artists as well as the places in which art is produced (workshops) and disseminated (reviews, galleries, museums). The pair define themselves as “œuvrier et œuvrière indisciplinaires” – “undisciplinary workers” in the dual sense of not working in a single discipline and being undisciplined. They explore the concepts of cultural democracy and social aesthetics through projects involving various disciplines, both artistic and otherwise, and through a range of other means of expression that walk the line between life and art. Whether in the woods of Saint-Raymond, on a Fisheries and Oceans Canada dock in Newfoundland, on a stretch of highway in Quebec, at the Festival XV INTERAKCJE in Krakow, at the Festival Fluxee Contemporary Art in Finland or on the internet, Doyon/Demers continues to make its presence felt in unconventional territories or “non-places” of art.
SEE
« Doyon/Demers : On the subject of Propaganda » by Fabrice Montal, ESPACE #33, p. 17.
« D’un duo à l’autre : Questions et réponses [première partie] », ESPACE #45, p. 11.