48 Lost Days

48 Lost Days was one of five artworks made for Les Occupantes, an exhibition that took place in a Montreal apartment in 1996. Les Occupantes explored the home as a semi-permeable site.

There is a tangible difference between entering the gallery and entering a domestic space. Often devoid of character by design and ready to take on the contents of the next exhibition, galleries tend to be open spaces with white walls. If we think of such spaces in terms of an activity it is usually one of viewing. Instead of the gallery venue, an apartment in a residential neighbourhood was chosen as a site for Les Occupantes. Typical Montreal domestic architecture, especially middle income apartments built around 1900, follow a European model of a series of contiguous rooms. Such spaces are often gendered, making reference to different individuals within the family group as well as to the relative importance of their specific activities within the home. For living rather than viewing, these rooms bear traces of each successive occupant who has personalized his or her dwelling to make it into a home.