On the one hand, there is Murdochville, founded in Gaspésie in 1950 following the discovery of a large copper deposit. In 1970, it had over 5,000 inhabitants. Today, since the mine closed, fewer than 1,000 people live there. On the other hand, there is the ISO, which “brings together experts to share knowledge and develop [...] market- relevant International Standards that support innovation and provide solu- tions to global challenges.” * On the one hand, the needs of people facing unemployment and a loss of identity; on the other, an institution which advocates the efficiency and performance that lead to profit.

Images taken from the project « Alors dansez maintenant »

Be Loyal and Sincere

A Film crew is documenting the behavior patterns of two mock-commando units comprised of adolescent boys admist a paintball war, while they search for hidden prototype of a revolutionary military weapon in the Boreal forest. The rivaling teams are requipped with only basic supplies of food and water, a compass and a map as means of surviving in the deep woods.  The boys have almost no experience or survival skills and face increasingly difficult situations, including a frightening night filled with the howls of hunting wolves. Tensions rise and the boys become increasingly confrontational and soon turn their aggressions towards the film crew... leaving these young men thinking that this is more than just a game.

Operation Cobra

Rip in Pieces America is an uncensored proclamation from an invisible USA. Dominic Gagnon turns no blind eye in his ultra-intense collage film which consists entirely of more or less anonymous webcam clips that due to their controversial or explicit nature have been flagged and meanwhile removed from video sites such as YouTube. Well-formulated conspiracy theorists, bad-tempered grass-roots activists and religious arms fanatics, who use the webcam as both a means to preach and to confess, have all been filtered by the censor, but stored by Gagnon, who neither comments nor embarks on any finger-pointing. For who decides what can be thought and said? And what is paranoia, if you know that you’re right? RIP is an uncensored, in-your-face assault on political correctness and on most American institutions. But it also has a bizarre performative element that develop in pure Hollywood fashion.

RIP in Pieces America

“We use the strength of resilience pro- voked by six emotional states: bore- dom, sadness, solitude, anger, disgust and indifference.” The manifesto of the At-Work collective appears onscreen, proclaiming artistic and intellec- tual guerrilla tactics with Situationist aspects: “Work is considered as an experimental field in which conflictual relationships between private utopias, collective necessities and economic realities are at play.”

DATA

"Flag as inapproriate". This unconspicuous button with a flag icon appears underneath every single YouTube video we watch marking the limits of our freedom in the Internet. Once flagged by anonymous users, after being checked by the also anonymous YouTube team, a video quickly disappears forever. In exactly this process, Dominic Gagnon intervenes. He 'saves' the flagged videos before they are deleted and adds them to a dark and mythological collage of American survivalism. People have their say, who deeply mistrust the government, who warn their fellow citizens, and who arm themselves visibly. An unclear image emerges. While the protagonists are scared of the almighty American government, the viewer is irritated what to find the most threatening in this "hell": the United States of America, the critics armed to the teeth with conspiracy theories, or the anonymous censorship power of the companies which control the web.

Pieces and Love All to Hell

It all began with The Society of the Spectacle, the book and the film. Gagnon updates the discourse, juxtaposing Guy Debord’s voice onto contemporary images taken from the internet. Social alienation in the global market era takes shape on screen.

Society's Space

Just out of jail, sitting in his car, Joseph drinks iced coffee, smokes cigarettes and makes videos. He loves a USA that he can see disappearing before his eyes, and his rants are a powerful trip into a reactionary and savage American psyche.