In Pliable, we asked visitors to share their impressions of the L’OFFRE exhibition in the form of origami. The Traces space in the basement of the 451 St. Jean building was soon filled with sculptures that carried a variety of messages: from insights about the artworks, to personal secrets, excerpts of poems and even notes to our staff.

For the members of DHC/ART Education, these gestures are a real gift. In The Gift, Lewis Hyde speaks of the notion of circular giving, where a gift moves in a circle and no one receives it from the same person they gave it to. As opposed to a two-person exchange, it keeps the gift in motion and each donation becomes an “act of social faith [1].” With that in mind, we decided to expand our community by offering the sculptures in multiple locations: from the backstreets of Montreal, to the woods of Magog, New York and Bogota.

Tanha Gomes
DHC/ART Education

[1] HYDE, Lewis (2007 [1983]). The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World. New York: Vintage Books.

Photos: Amanda Beattie, Tanha Gomes, and Marie-Hélène Lemaire