La Fabrique, c’est quoi?

A Centre Turbine project presented in collaboration with SKOL.

In the winter of 2011, La Fabrique set up its activities in the Rheaume Pavillion of the Monseigneur-Richard High School in Verdun: a fascinating indoor world shaped by brutalist concrete architecture, typically found in Quebec school constructions of the 1970s. La Fabrique initially raised questions: How can one breathe life into this environment and architecture devoted to pedagogy? How can artistic action foster reflection about this space? What followed was a dissemination of graphic manifestos and printed quotes by participating students in which they reflected on their built environment and its social ramifications. This acted as a catalyst for the artist and two groups of students to dedicate themselves to a core production of unusual furniture, created from obsolete equipment found in the school’s storage spaces: an armada of hybrid objects was gradually inserted into the school to enhance its public dimension, and to foster the emergence of social interaction spaces within it. These unexpected actions questioned the students’ relationship with their school microcosm and, by extension, that of their own city.