ATSA Le temps d’une Soupe, since 2015.
Photo: © ATSA

ATSA: When Art Reaches Out

In this age of constant connection, virtual reality, and technologized relationships, humanity is increasingly confronted with the paradox of a dehumanized and solitary means of being together. Political and social engagement is no longer expressed by speaking out in solidarity in public places, but through strings of “likes” on social networks that have now become the vessels of 2.0 sociability. We have traded flesh-and-blood human contact for an artificial mode of empathy that is difficult to reconcile with the realities of the less fortunate, who, for lack of means, must still rely on the tangible presence of helping hands and benevolent smiles to brave their harsh reality.

This is the mandate that artist couple Annie Roy and Pierre Allard embraced in 1998 by founding Action terroriste socialement acceptable (ATSA), a non-profit arts organization whose vocation is to produce and disseminate artworks in the form of collaborative social interventions. And it is a mandate that Roy promised to honour following the death on November 25, 2018, of Allard, her companion in life and art, who “fought for peace [usant] art and love as his sole weapon.”¹ 1 - Annie Roy, “A Tremendous Shock,” ATSA, https://atsa.qc.ca/. In this sense, the Cuisine ta Ville event picks up from the États d’Urgence and Fin Novembre series to reflect upon the reality of refugees and immigrants. Its second edition will take place from May 9 to 12, 2019.

Exemplary of this militant and pacifist vision of creation is ATSA’s motto “When art takes action,” which clearly emphasizes the promise of active engagement made by Roy and Allard regarding the incessant daily violence experienced by the most marginalized. Unique in the contemporary arts scene, the organization uses parody in its multidisciplinary and public installations to tackle head on social problems such as homelessness and the failure to respect fundamental rights — issues often rendered invisible by the more profitable interests of the art market. Soliciting spectator collaboration in the heart of the city, these installations are intended to contrast the virtuality of the images that punctuate social networks against reality to raise awareness about the obvious problems of poverty and social inequality in our immediate community.

**ATSA**
*Le temps d’une Soupe*, since 2015.
Photo: © ATSA

Without being stripped of aestheticism or symbolism, these “actions,” as Roy and Allard described them, are above all intended to awaken civic responsibility and stimulate dialogue. The best known of these was undoubtedly the annual “demo-festival²” 2 - Ève Lamoureux, Art et politique : Nouvelles formes d’engagement artistique au Québec, Montréal, Écosociété, 2009. L’État d’Urgence (1998-2010). Taking the form of a refugee camp that, over the years, featured festive banquets and multidisciplinary art performances, distributed warm clothing, and provided improvised dormitories, L’État d’Urgence was both a militant act of civic resistance and a relational artwork capable of generating discussion and a collective questioning of the issues of poverty and isolation. Held during the run-up to end-of-year festivities, the five-day event aimed to inject a good dose of love and compassion into the capitalist carnival of decadence and individuality. A hybrid amalgam of transdisciplinary event, citizen engagement, and art practice, the project proposed interactive situations in which gestures of social engagement and art overlapped, and in which both neophytes and the initiated fully participated. Here, as in all of ATSA’s projects, art played the role of mobilizing agent and conduit for relationality.

Le temps d’une Soupe (2015-), one of the last projects piloted by the couple, explicitly embraces the concept of personal encounters to diffuse the fear of the other, redressing disinformation and misconceptions fed by the media in order to establish a positive and constructive relationship with otherness.

Invited to participate in “spontaneous paired conversations” over a bowl of soup, two strangers sit face to face discussing diverse subjects related to living together. A lasting trace of these encounters is a photograph of each pair accompanied by a thought or reflection emanating from their discussion. Presented at three European festivals, in Canada (notably in the Far North in Inuit communities, where needs are vast yet resources are limited), and, more recently, in Lebanon, Madagascar, Morocco, and other places, Le temps d’une Soupe has generated thousands of encounters and “poetic portraits,” indisputable evidence of the possibility of rehumanizing the world through artistic action.

An icon of the renewal of engaged art at the turn of the 2000s, ATSA is still an emblem of a sensitive and supportive art practice characterized by real empathy and exemplary citizen engagement. Without claiming any consensus or acting in the interest of accolades, Roy and Allard have distinguished themselves as exceptional artists over the past twenty years through modesty, compassion, and devotion. With ATSA, artistic engagement is inextricably linked with the political and the civic, and is always infused with a touch of humour and humanity to dismantle, without minimizing in any way, the violence of the social problems that it tackles through Banques à Bas (1997) or bowls of hot soup.

Translated from the French by Louise Ashcroft