Accommodating One’s Gaze, Body, Gesture and Intention…

This text is the narrative of a research-creation experience that took place in Nunavik during the winter of 2016-2017 in the framework of the Chaire d’Études de la France contemporaine in Canada. The project is based on the hypothesis of an Art of Fieldwork with an overarching somatic and performative approach. The body becomes a support and medium of observation, improvised creation, collection and exchange of gestures and words with the population. Encounters with the Inuit gradually built up through performances, hikes, participation in community festivities and informal conversations. The paper tackles the methodological issues posed to an artist-researcher, as well as the contribution of Participatory Action Research tools in devising an artistic apparatus for in-situ investigation. Finally, the visual archives embody a narrative that is at once subjective, fictional and documentary, without seeking to exhaust the subject, but as an attempt to reach out to those who have offered their hospitality.