A look into the inner workings of the residences through the eyes of its artists
Annie-Claude Deschênes, singer, keyboardist, singer-songwriter and visual artist with the music group Duchess Says (Bonsound, Alien8 Recordings, Slovenly Recordings) and the band PYPY (Slovenly Recordings), talks about the creative process fostered by the PHI North Residency. Her interview is followed by an original performance with experimental sounds that animate the space.
In 2022, the PHI North Residency for Quebec musicians welcomed four artists for two-week creative retreats in a riverfront loft in the Laurentian Mountains. This residency offers an opportunity to produce, explore, and experiment in a fully immersive, intimate, and peaceful setting within a nature-based recording studio.
We wanted to immortalize these moments by allowing the artists to share their feelings and discoveries. A journey to the heart of the residences through their eyes.
About the artist
Photo: Robert Gil
Annie-Claude Deschênes lives and works in Montreal. Visual artist, singer, keyboardist, and singer-songwriter in the music group Duchess Says (Bonsound, Alien8 Recordings, Slovenly Recordings) and the formation PYPY (Slovenly Recordings), she also studied sound design at Musitechnic as well as in visual arts at Laval University. The visual and performative aspect occupies a dominant place in all her projects. On stage, she is in a trance; she experiments and has fun making the music visually palpable. She interacts with the spectators, animates the space by improvising with the available objects and tries to distort the show's conventions to spark the crowd's imagination. Each musical performance becomes an immersive multidimensional experience where the public is stimulated by each sound, visual, and performative aspect. For her, visual art and music are inseparable.
PHI x NORTH
PHI North offers musicians the opportunity to produce, explore, experiment and refine an artistic project. Selected participants are granted a two-week creative retreat at a riverside lodge in the Laurentian mountains featuring exclusive access to a state-of-the-art recording studio, with in-house engineer and technical assistance, and support from PHI’s team of multidisciplinary experts.
Specifically oriented for Quebec-based artists, this residency provides a much needed escape from the everyday in order for participants to completely immerse themselves in their artistry.
Presented by
Discover the 2022 PHI North Residency artists
Explore
Foundation
Marc Quinn
October 5 → January 6, 2008
Gathering over forty recent works, DHC/ART’s inaugural exhibition by conceptual artist Marc Quinn is the largest ever mounted in North America and the artist’s first solo show in Canada
Foundation
Re-enactments
February 22 → May 25, 2008
Six artists present works that in some way critically re-stage films, media spectacles, popular culture and, in one case, private moments of daily life
Foundation
Sophie Calle: Take Care of Yourself
July 4 → October 19, 2008
This poetic and often touching project speaks to us all about our relation to the loved one
Foundation
Christian Marclay: Replay
November 30 → March 29, 2009
DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art is pleased to present the North American premiere of Christian Marclay’s Replay, a major exhibition gathering works in video by the internationally acclaimed artist
Foundation
Michal Rovner: Particles of Reality
May 21 → September 27, 2009
DHC/ART is pleased to present Particles of Reality, the first solo exhibition in Canada of the celebrated Israeli artist Michal Rovner, who divides her time between New York City and a farm in Israel
Foundation
Living Time
October 16 → November 22, 2009
The inaugural DHC Session exhibition, Living Time, brings together selected documentation of renowned Taiwanese-American performance artist Tehching Hsieh’s One Year Performances and the films of young Dutch artist, Guido van der Werve
Foundation
Eija-Liisa Ahtila: Int. Stage-Day
January 29 → May 9, 2010
Eija-Liisa Ahtila’s film installations experiment with narrative storytelling, creating extraordinary tales out of ordinary human experiences
Foundation
Jenny Holzer
June 30 → November 14, 2010
For more than thirty years, Jenny Holzer’s work has paired text and installation to examine personal and social realities