With Pablo Gershanik
“At the very moment your life changes forever, what other stories are taking place—on your street, in your neighborhood, in your city, in your country, across the map of the world?…
– Intimate Maquettes Lab”
The Intimate Maquettes Lab is a participatory artistic practice that explores how personal and collective memories of violence can be re-imagined and re-signified through small-scale narrative and audiovisual reconstruction. Developed over the past decade, the Lab engages individuals, families, and communities who have been protagonists of challenging experiences in a process of symbolic reconstruction, where symbolic cartographies of memory become a shared stage for testimony, reflection, and dialogue. Each participant creates a maquette in the interest of exploring the link between personal and collective history, giving form to images, memories, absent elements, mythologies, and desires. These maquettes act simultaneously as archive, witness, and metaphor, opening new pathways for public conversation about trauma, justice, and reparation. In this talk, I will share the conceptual framework of the Intimate Maquettes Lab, situating it within applied theatre, object-based performance, and trauma-informed artistic placemaking. I will also share aspects of my research motivated by key moments that have emerged throughout labs developed across Europe, North America, and Latin America, reflecting on the methodological and ethical challenges of working at the intersection of memory, art, and social repair.
Pablo Gershanik is an actor, clown, director, and academic whose work bridges visual theatre, memory, and justice. He trained at the École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq (Paris), holds a Master’s degree in Dramatherapy from the University of Paris, and is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Arts at Concordia University (Montreal). He is a 2025 Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholar. Pablo is the creator of the Intimate Maquettes Lab, an artistic and trauma-informed intervention presented in museums, universities, and cultural institutions in North and Latin America, Europe and China.
REGISTRATION
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but you need to register!
This is a hybrid event.
To attend in person, please register here.
To attend online, please register here.
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but registration is mandatory. For any questions please contact cohds.chorn@concordia.ca
LOCATION
In-person in LB-1042 (ALLab), COHDS
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.
