"the problems of the world will not melt away"

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“As we walked in silence, I realized I couldn’t help myself. I was talking to the Popsicle because I literally had no one else to talk to. At home, I might not have had friends, but there was always someone to talk to. What a sick world this is where you talk to the enemy because there’s literally no one else, feeling so depressed by this idea that, to cheer myself up, I start imagining him as an actual popsicle. A big purple dripping popsicle walking alongside me, two wooden popsicle sticks for legs, angling his frame from side to side with every awkward step. A big purple popsicle with a beautiful popsicle wife and two beautiful popsicle children. Then I imagine him melting, that eventually he will melt away to nothing, leaving a long purple sticky trail behind him, like a purple popsicle snail. And it occurs to me this might be what I most want, for the problems of the world to simply melt away. But the problems of the world will not melt away, we must find tools and strategies to push against them, and I wonder, even here, in this hopeless predicament, what such tools and strategies might be, as the imaginary purple popsicle continues to melt into nothingness beside me.”
- Jacob Wren, Dry Your Eyes to Perfect Your Aim


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Scotiabank fully divests from Elbit Systems

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Scotiabank fully divests from Elbit Systems.

This divestment does not exonerate Scotiabank, which maintains investments in arms and extractive capital.

Nonetheless, we must celebrate small wins.

You can read more about it here.


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Adventures can be found anywhere, même dans un cauchemar at Mois Multi in Quebec City.

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PME-ART are excited to be collaborating with Bureau de l’APA on a new version of our Adventures can be found anywhere, même dans... Concept Touring Kit entitled: Adventures can be found anywhere, même dans un cauchemar, taking place February 10-14, 2026 at Mois Multi in Quebec City.

I am realizing I haven't yet had a chance to write about our Concept Touring Kit, so I'll give it a try now:

Concept Touring (also referred to as “showing without going”) is a way of disseminating work in which the idea, process and project travels but the artists do not. Instead of the artists travelling, local artists recreate the project for their own local context. Concept Touring is a growing international trend that responds to the current ecological crisis, allowing artists to disseminate their work without taking airplanes. It is an environmental initiative to help us lower our carbon footprint and also, in this case, a remarkable opportunity for local artists to experience the magic that is PME-ART.

Very briefly, Adventures can be found anywhere… is a project in which a group of artists sit around a table and rewrite a book of their own choosing, page by page, changing it in significant ways that are chosen beforehand, and then immediately read each page aloud. It is a mischievous hybrid of literature and live performance that goes to places both unexpected and moving. You might have already seen the videos of the two original (non-concept touring) versions:

Adventures can be found anywhere, même dans la répétition (2022)
Adventures can be found anywhere, même dans la mélancolie (2014)

What makes Adventures can be found anywhere… such a perfect project for Concept Touring is the process of the local artists choosing their own book to rewrite and having the opportunity to rewrite it in their own language.

The Concept Touring Kit version of Adventures can be found anywhere… premiered at the 2024 edition of the Homo Novus festival in Riga, Latvia. The project was recreated by ten local Latvian artists selected through an open call. They chose a new title that was a mix of Latvian and French: Piedzīvojumus var atrast it visā, même dans le courage. These ten local artists together decided to rewrite Milda Palēviča’s diaries (which were originally written in French and then translated into Latvian), the very first Latvian female philosopher who had mostly been forgotten during the Soviet era.

The upcoming version in Quebec City at Le Lieu (where Bureau de l’APA rewrite Kafka's The Trial) will be the second time our Concept Touring Kit is performed. It is our hope that our Concept Touring Kit will continue to travel (without us.) If you are interested in creating your own version of Adventures can be found anywhere… please get in touch.

Facebook event.
Relay-Interview with Jacob Wren at Mois Multi / February 14, 10am-12pm

The original versions of Adventures can be found anywhere… and the Concept Touring Kit itself were created by: Burcu Emeç + Claudia Fancello + Marie Claire Forté + Nadège Grebmeier Forget + Adam Kinner + Catherine Lalonde + Ashlea Watkin + Jacob Wren. Thanks to Michèle Thériault and the Leonard & Bina Ellen Gallery for commissioning the work.