\u00ab To write absence, to write death\u2014no easy task. So many memories stir in my mind. What can be done with this inability to write? Perhaps it can be seen differently: perhaps this is also about writing life, writing Maria\u2019s presence. At least what I can say of it through my connection with her. But all of this is fragmentary, made up of bits of memories lodged somewhere between my ears, which I am trying to telegraph. And with which pronoun, second or third person singular? Why not both?<\/p>\n
2009, I saw you for the first time on video, and it stayed with me. Your project description made me deeply want to meet you. 2017, I saw her perform in\u00a0The Nutcracker<\/em>. There may have been other encounters between 2009 and 2017, but it was when I began working with Maria that a connection truly formed. 2018, I invited you to take part in a residency in Abitibi. I hold vivid memories of it, like a long journey through which, beyond the work itself, we also came to know one another. From the very first moments, a kind of poetic language emerged between us, like a game where we used words other than the expected ones, to the point of no longer understanding each other and laughing without ever clarifying. I also remember that ap\u00e9ro in the park, sheltered from the rain, talking beneath umbrellas, under the picnic table. May 2025, it will soon be a year since I sent you a short video of the curtain calls following Ellen Furey\u2019s tribute revival of your last work,\u00a0Beaches and other stories<\/em>, at Parbleux. Nearly a year during which, on many occasions, I have thought of you. I live only a few minutes from where she lived, and every time I pass by there, I look toward the balcony on the top floor\u2014that balcony from which we once waved to each other, from which we even once had a conversation, indirect of course. You are still there and you are no longer there. Like in\u00a0Direction assist\u00e9e<\/em><\/a>, that piece you were part of, that you are still part of. And the next time we present it, it will have been almost a year since I last spoke with you, Maria, in our language, tender and mysterious. \u00bb<\/p>\n