Performed conversation

Standards, language, power and knowledge

Les Abattoirs
Salle d'exposition
Entry subject to presentation of exhibition ticket (subject to availability)

As part of the exhibition Mezzanine Sud - Prix des Amis des Abattoirs, artist-laureate Mélodie Bajo invites you to discover her performance, ‘Normes, neurodiversité, langage, savoir et pouvoir’, a performative conversation developed with Lisandre Labrecque-Lebeau to echo the exhibition Je me suis dissoute lorsque j'ai découvert cette fibre animée et on s'est évaporée-s à l'intérieur currently on show at Les Abattoirs.

Sociology is a category of knowledge of the world, just like art.
In these conversations, known as ‘performées’, which fall into neither the field of sociology nor that of art, Lisandre and Mélodie play at art and science together, questioning their approaches through the very format proposed. They will never be able to fit into any of the boxes. Following this fatal observation, they embarked on a common methodology: a cartography in the form of a dialogical project, which advances through and in their discussions.

Each subject is a pretext for entering their playground. They seek to put different elements of the world into some kind of order, and they ask themselves, without answering, how to differentiate between art and life? Sociology from life?

Another performative conversation is on offer at the BBB Centre d'Art on Friday 14 February at 7pm: ‘Façade sociale, neurodiversité, synesthésie, émotions, langage, normes et danse’, echoing the exhibition On sent danser nos troubles dans ces gestes bleus at the BBB Centre d'Art.

Mélodie Bajo, born in Paris (75), is a visual artist whose practice oscillates between performance and installation. A 2018 graduate of the Institut supérieur des arts et du design de Toulouse (isdaT), she lives and works between Montreal and Toulouse.

She uses voice, humour and often salvaged materials in her work, exploring themes based on interactionist sociology, gender studies and psychology. Her work questions our social roles and their impact on our identities and relationships, particularly through the prism of neurodiversity and systems of power. Her performances and installations reflect on “normality”, blending fiction and reality in an approach that blurs the boundaries between the real and the imaginary.

For her project at Les Abattoirs, Je me suis dissoute lorsque j'ai découvert cette fibre animée et on s'est évaporé-e-s à l'intérieur, Mélodie Bajo wants to express herself through a fictional character. Her double uses letters, words, and develops reflections on knowledge, social roles, equality between peers, and a new language. This utopian character, who is not entirely human, tackles a range of issues, seeking to bring order to our misunderstandings, but failing to do so. By challenging established conventions, Mélodie Bajo offers an intriguing exploration of our perceptions and systems of thought.

In 2019-2020, the artist will take part in a residency at the Abattoirs library in Toulouse, culminating in an exhibition. In 2021, she becomes the winner of the Création en cours residencies, run by the Ateliers Médicis, launching an artistic project based on transmission that she continues in 2022 during the Transat residencies, also run by the Ateliers Médicis.

In 2023, following a residency at Pollen, Monflanquin, she presented her first solo exhibition, entitled Chaordre.
The year 2024 marked a significant milestone in her career, with the start of her collaboration with sociologist Lisandre Labrecque-Lebeau on transatlantic projects between France and Canada, combining art and sociology. She also put on a solo exhibition at the BBB Centre d'Art in Toulouse, entitled On sent danser nos troubles dans ces gestes bleus, following a residency in the northern districts of Toulouse.

That same year, Mélodie Bajo also took part in the group exhibition Ça improvise du réel, organised to mark the 30th anniversary of the BBB Centre d'Art. She also presented her performance Je me suis dissoute lorsque j'ai découvert cette fibre animée et on s'est évaporé-e-s à l'intérieur, at the Darling Foundry in Montreal.

In partnership with the BBB and Air de Midi