Quartier Libre and our micro-library at Studio 277 at 401 Richmond. We invited Simon Madore. Simon is a director and an adopted Franco-Torontonian for over 20 years. He selected three works of fiction, books that marked him in his youth, and others that inspired him in his artistic practice. Through this discussion about books, we evoked Japanese cinema, slowing down, the passage of time, memory, and the political role of the artistic community.

Matières douces is a podcast initiated by Le Labo, The Toronto Art Laboratory, which explores the links between artistic creation, deceleration, and eco-responsibility.

Through several pre-recorded episodes broadcast on CHOQ FM radio, the series gives a voice to artists and curators who question our way of inhabiting the world: reading, walking, exhibiting, and collaborating differently.

Recorded between the Quartier Libre micro-library at Studio 277 (401 Richmond in Toronto) and Toronto’s public spaces, Gentle Matters weaves conversations around:

• deceleration and anti-capitalist imaginaries
• decoloniality through writing
• walking as an artistic and ecological practice,
• distance as a space for creation