Demi Monde

Caroline Monnet is an Algonquin/French multidisciplinary artist whose work explores Indigenous and bicultural life and identity. She is interested in how people define themselves as people of one or many identities and people living between many cultures. In this installation, stills from Monnet’s film Demi Monde are transposed over the city, making two perspectives visible. The word which literally translates to “half world,” has a personal meaning for Monnet: “A distinct world—that is often an isolated part of a larger world.”

Two liquids swirl together, a mirror seems to be a portal, and a single face separates into two—these images all depict boundaries and separations. Vancouver is a city that has had many names since the bustling city c̓әsnaʔәm was first occupied by the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓-speaking ancestors of the Musqueam people around five thousand years ago. The artist has created these images to take us across the boundaries between one world and another, where two cultures—and two cities—meet.

The multilingual text is an invitation for viewers to take a moment from their daily commute through Vancouver and join in a multivocal discussion about how these meetings, bindings, and conflicts of identity have shaped the city.

View the full video at carolinemonnet.ca