Artist Michel Boutin performs live sound art using contact mics and sticks

Listen to the sounds that inspire Michel Boutin

I tend to always use natural objects that were living or in some cases are living. Like feathers and bones, sticks and stones and I use those because they have the life force in them.

– Michel Boutin

Michel Boutin is an artist, arts educator and cultural animateur. He is also one of three artists taking part in a new pilot project at Remai Modern. The Sustained Artist Project focuses on live arts and is unfolding over a 10-month period, culminating in a public performance in 2022. Boutin recently visited Remai Modern to talk about how his artistic practice has evolved during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as demonstrate some of the techniques he employs to create his sound art.

Boutin has exhibited his work publicly for more than two decades and has presented his work at museums and galleries throughout the province. Boutin is an active supporter of contemporary art and artist-run culture and was the artistic director of the Indigenous People’s Artist Collective of Prince Albert (IPAC), which he co-founded in 2005. Boutin was the 2017 recipient of the Saskatchewan Arts Award for Individual Leadership.

You can see Michel Boutin perform live at Remai Modern as part of WEGO on August 29 and as part of the opening weekend program for Postcommodity Time Holds All The Answers in mid-September.