Who Are We?

A two time finalist of the Grand Prix du Conseil des arts de Montréal, the company has made its mark through its avant-gardist and playful approach, its risk-taking and its artisanal appropriation of new technologies.

Primarily focused on spoken word and performance art, the company has evolved over the years towards interdisciplinary arts. It has overseen various projects including the dual music and performance Mankind, the poetry and music group, Erlenmeyer, the projects La Salle des pas perdus, Brahmine, The Constant Bride, Les Phénomènes inexpliqués, as well as short films.

Created in 2012, Phénomena is an interdisciplinary festival that offers shows, performances, installations, and ludicrous and unconventional events. The objective is to create improbable encounters and to support interdisciplinary, and unconventional artistic practices. The Festival Phénomena took over the Festival Voix d’Amériques, dedicated to poetry and spoken word, which had great success from 2002 to 2011.

The company is part of the interdisciplinary underground cultural movement, featuring a mix of Montreal based French and English artists in a festival context.

Since its creation, the company has most noteably produced:

A dozen shows and performances:

• La mythologie expliquée (through living pictures) at the Festival Phénomena
• The Les Phénomènes inexpliqués spectacle at the Festival Phénomena
• le spectacle interdisciplinaire The Constant Bride au OFFTA, à Banff, en tournée dans les Maisons de la culture à Montréal et dans quatre villes en Espagne
• The show La Salle des pas perdus at the Berlin Poetry Festival in Berlin, and Ex-Centris in Montreal and at the FIMAV in Victoriaville
• The duo Mankind (D. Kimm and Alexis O’Hara) in several festivals: Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville (FIMAV), Edgy Women, Suoni Per Il Popolo and à l’étranger au Poesie Berlin Festival (Allemagne), Donau Festival (Autriche), Musique Action (France), Howl (États-Unis)
• Two shows by the collective Brahmine at l’OFFTA and at the FVA
• Shby the Band de poètes from 2001 to 2006

Four short films presented at the Festival of New Cinema, at the Rendez-vous of Quebequois cinema, etc:

• En attendant Corto Maltese (D. Kimm/Patrice Duhamel)
• Si tu veux me garder, tu dois t’éloigner (D. Kimm/Patrice Duhamel)
• Qui est là? (Chloé Leriche/Renée Gagnon)
• Miss Clara, tamer of rabbits (D. Kimm/Brigitte Henry)

Three CDs on Ambiances Magnétiques and Monsieur Fateux, m’entendez-vous?:

• Ice Machine from the duo Mankind
• Le Silence des hommes by D. Kimm and Bernard Falaise
• Le Band de poètes

The DVD Écrits et chuchotements / Page vs Stage presents the work of fifteen spoken word artists from Montreal.

The company also presented two editions of the Festival Phenomena and 10 editions of the Festival Voix d’Americas which has produced more than 160 shows and which has hosted over 600 artists.

In addition to its artistic productions, the company has leveraged its expertise and its networks to make room for unconventional, or traditionally excluded, voices. From 2006 to 2011, LFE has pursued a social mission to aid women who are in need, homeless or judiciarized. Four books have been published in collaboration with Shelter La Rue des Femmes, Passages et l’Arrêt-Source: Écrire et sans pitié (Éditions du Passage, 2006) ABCd’art de La rue des Femmes (Remue-ménage, 2007), Passagères — Voix de changement (Planet rebel, 2010), and Time to act (Planet Rebel, 2011) in collaboration with the Elizabeth Fry Society of Quebec and Transmission Black / LEVIER.