Conversational Conference
POP Symposium Celebrates Practical, Philosophical Aspects of Being an Artist
There’s a lot more to art than simply the art.
Finding and working for a label, booking gigs, managing yourself and others, producing work, licensing and touring are all considerations of the modern creator, and for many years,
the POP Montreal circuit has engaged what goes on behind the scenes with the POP Symposium, running this year from
Sept. 21 to 25.
Featuring the artists that show up to the POP scene each year, the symposium explores the behind-the-scenes scope of art production and is certainly worth checking out before rocking out to the regularly scheduled POP shows.
“It’s kind of like a public service we provide to Montreal,” explained POP Montreal Producer and Symposium Director Patricia Boushel. “This means offering workshops, while also having conversations that go into the more philosophical aspects of music-making, while also sticking with some very useful and practical stuff.”
This year’s symposium includes round tables on subjects like creative economic labour and commonly asked questions for indie music managers, to song collaboration workshops, artist talks, and documentary film-making and viewings—while also tackling practical elements of the gig, like the one-on-one grant application workshop.
Boushel admitted she’s most excited for the “open cultural mediation” the symposium inspires.
“We’re trying to explore under-recognized talent, and stimulate conversations between younger and older artists who have operated outside of the limelight,” she said. “It’s about having a space that’s so open—where you can just go up and talk to these people. It makes a lot of possibilities seem accessible to artists.”
Particularly notable on the conversational roster are discussions between artists who have never met. On Sept. 23, tUnE-YaRds’ Merrill Garbus sits down with Maisonneuve magazine’s Editor-in-Chief Drew Nelles about vocal composition in “Voices on Voices” and local electro lovelies Tim Hecker and Grimes are sitting down to talk composition and creative process on Sept. 24.
R. Stevie Moore—a DIY music legend who has released 400 albums since 1967—is also coming in to chat about production philosophy and the creative process.
“People like the privilege of being in direct contact with creators. It’s a privilege they don’t have everyday,” said Boushel.
“If you work in the industry, yeah, sure, you can get really blasé about all that [and just keep] looking at your Rolodex and congratulating yourself. But there are a lot of regular people out there who really respect the role and work of artists in society.
“I think on our agenda, we always want to instill a greater respect for the work of artists and musicians,” she continued. “There’s a lot to be done [with the general public] as far as how it is that people see the necessity of art and music. And it’s always one of our concerns [at POP] to reinforce the validity and necessity of art as work.”
The majority of Symposium events take place at
L’École des beaux-arts de Montréal (3450 St.
Urbain St.) Check out popmontreal.com/en/symposium/events for more info.
This article originally appeared in Volume 32, Issue 04, published September 20, 2011.
