Cultural revival | Émilie Monnet: the year of spread wings

She arrives in a hurry and apologizing. She is 15 minutes late, the fault of her broken phone and the printed copy of her vaccination passport that she could no longer find. Émilie Monnet is completely forgiven: the multidisciplinary artist, actress, playwright and Indigenous director is extremely busy as she prepares for the busiest year of her career.

Stephanie Morin
The Press

The meeting was given at Café Darling, boulevard Saint-Laurent, a place where she often came during the pandemic to write (or have an aperitif, depending on her mood!). The many plants that decorate the place act like a balm on this great nature lover, for whom the calm of the forest is just as essential as the frenzy of Montreal.

“I share my life between Montreal and the Outaouais, where my mother comes from,” says the 42-year-old artist, born in Ottawa to a notary father of French origin and an Anishinaabe mother who comes from just retired from the Association of Canadian Community Colleges. “I moved to Montreal in 2007. It’s a city that I love, but it has become very important for me to put down roots in the territory of my ancestors. His Mile End apartment now serves as his refuge for work. However, she has spent a lot (a lot!) of time there recently…

Because the contracts are linked for this autodidact in perpetual learning. “I realized that I will be on stage almost every night until the end of May. I am also finishing a two-year residency at the National Theater School. And above all, it is in 2022 that I will give birth to my baby: an ambitious three-part project on the story of the native slave Marguerite Duplessis. »

This proliferation of projects carried out at the same time does not surprise his sister, the visual artist Caroline Monnet. “Émilie has always been like that. She is curious and not afraid of the unknown. She is a very instinctive artist who likes to go into the visceral. The human dimension is very important to her. She sees each project as a way to grow humanly…”

An opinion shared by Angelique Willkie, a well-known artist in the dance world who is co-signing the staging of Émilie Monnet’s next piece. “Émilie is a complete artist. When she plays, she doesn’t just have an intellectual conviction. It’s visceral. As a performer, she has great generosity and great openness. Circular creation, the conviction that everything is in everything, is part of his native culture, but also of his artistic practice. It does not separate things; she prefers to cover her tracks. »

A late call

From her childhood, spent between Brittany and the Outaouais, Émilie keeps memories of music from around the world that played in the family home. And subtitled films from Thailand, Iran or elsewhere, that his mother borrowed from a cinephile work colleague. In short, there was an artistic sensibility in the Monnets, but Émilie and her sister Caroline are the only ones in the extended family to have embraced a career in the arts.

And the call came late for the eldest of the Monnet sisters, who was destined for a career in international cooperation; in particular, she obtained a master’s degree in peace studies and conflict resolution at universities in Spain and Sweden. “My dream was to work in a refugee camp. I did an internship in cooperation with the Mapuches in southern Chile and worked for several years in indigenous women’s associations, particularly in South America, but also in Quebec, in Kahnawake. »

At 24, when she was going through a major loss, she decided to “have the courage to follow what [son] heart dictated to him”, or to develop his interest in the arts. She took her first steps as an artist in community settings, with women in prison or young Aboriginal people.

She has always been interested in history and questions of identity. “Art makes it possible to resist any form of categorization by reconciling all my identities. My identity is plural, just like the indigenous identity, which cannot fit into one small box. I never speak on behalf of aboriginal peoples. I speak for myself, that’s all. Art shatters borders, it decompartmentalizes. That’s why I feel like I belong here. »

For her friend Tatiana Zinga Botao, who shared the boards with her during the presentation of the piece in Paris The girls of the Saint-Lawrence, Émilie Monnet is an “incredibly humble” artist, very aware of her artistic responsibility. “At Émilie, speaking out goes beyond going on stage. For her, we speak up if we have something important to say, otherwise we say nothing. She’s a smart performer, who can be very funny, even though she’s often associated with gravity. It’s amazing to see her evolve as she does now. »

Margaret’s Discovery

After devoting his piece Okinum to various indigenous languages ​​(a play for which she was a finalist for the Governor General’s Awards in 2021, in the French-language theater category), Émilie Monnet tackles for her new project an unfairly unknown character in our history: Marguerite Duplessis.

This woman with a tragic destiny was, in 1740, the first slave and the first Aboriginal in New France to fight legally to obtain her freedom. She lost her case and was deported to the West Indies. “At the time of her trial, she was very young, in her twenties. It bothers me a lot to think about it. »

“I discovered its existence during a guided tour of Aboriginal Montreal 10 years ago! I had never heard of her before. How is it possible ? Marguerite Duplessis is one of those forgotten heroes whose names do not appear in any history book.

For two years, Émilie Monnet embarked on a real quest to retrace the past of this extraordinary woman. She even visited Martinique to try to find her trace and discover the end of her story. In vain.

Founder of the Onishka company and artist in residence at Espace Go for three years, Émilie Monnet already has an idea for her next project. “I want to talk about love and native eroticism. I want something lighter. One thing is certain, she intends to take advantage of her platform to make heard voices little represented on the stages of Quebec.

Dreams also play a major role in his creative process. “It is the main breeding ground for my creation. I also keep a dream book. Dreams open doors to other levels of understanding the world. They fascinate me just like the connection that exists between the visible and the invisible. »

But the artist – “a discreet one”, according to Tatiana Zinga Botao – will not say if in her wildest dreams, 2022 was going to be the year when her artist’s wings were going to unfold like never before.

Émilie Monnet in five projects

Marguerite: the crossing

Émilie Monnet’s quest to retrace the life of Marguerite Duplessis, but also better understand the history of slavery in Quebec, is at the heart of a documentary podcast launched in mid-December. Numerous interviews (with historians in particular) punctuate the artist’s story, proving that Marguerite’s destiny resonates again and again in today’s Quebec.

Marguerite: the crossing is available on all listening platforms and at onishka.org

Marguerite: fire

Émilie Monnet was inspired by the archives she found and the verbatim of the trial of Marguerite Duplessis to write a play. “Marguerite’s story is told there in a more visceral way”, says the one who will wear the triple hat of playwright, performer and director (supported by Angelique Willkie). Video projections by her sister Caroline will be incorporated into the show, as will music by Apache artist Laura Ortman.

At Espace Go, from March 15 to April 2

Marguerite: the stone

The last part of the project articulated around the story of Marguerite Duplessis will be a sound walk through the streets of Old Montreal, presented in May. “This is where Marguerite lived and where slavery took place in Montreal. I wanted to invest these places of memory. At the same time, Émilie Monnet will also offer performances at the Center du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui entitled Emilie holds a salonwhich will be “halfway between conversation and conference”.

In coproduction with the Center du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui, from May 7 to June 6

Myth

Also at Espace Go, Émilie Monnet will cast the play Myth, conceived, written and set to music by Mykalle Bielinski, who also did the staging. “This very poetic show focuses on our relationship to life and finitude. It’s very nice to be able to sing like this with other women. “Florence Blain Mbaye, Laurence Dauphinais and Elizabeth Lima are also performing.

At Espace Go, from April 26 to May 14

The girls of the Saint-Lawrence

After being presented at the Théâtre de la Colline in Paris at the end of 2021, this piece was to land at the Center du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui in January. The pandemic has forced a postponement, the date of which remains unknown. Émilie Monnet is part of the imposing cast of this choral piece. “My character is not indigenous; it’s refreshing for me! Rubbing shoulders with women like Louise Laprade and Marie-Thérèse Fortin allows me to continue learning about my job as an interpreter. This show is a stone on my artistic path. »