This book presents Karen Spencer's most recent endeavour, the Dream listener / Porteur de rêves project that took place in Montreal. For a year, Spencer was the alter ego of a dream listener, insinuating herself into the public space with her own dreams. To do this, she transcribed her dreams onto large pieces of cardboard that she found everywhere and displayed in the street. These dream signs allowed her to enter into a dialogue with passers-by and gave her the opportunity to enter the intimate world of other people's dreams. At the end of each day, she left the dream-card in the street at various sites as a trace of the action. In all, one hundred and ninety-four dreams were shared in this way.
"Pieces of cardboard posted in some urban environment, on which we can read anonymous statements beginning each time with the words "I dreamed that...", "I dreamed of..." or "Sueno...". Terse statements or short narratives, these stories of dreams that are in turn poignant, unusual or eccentric were scattered throughout the streets, parks and wastelands of Montreal for a whole year. In the course of a long-term project, their author, artist Karen Spencer, criss-crossed the city holding these makeshift signs in front of her, almost daily revealing her dreams to passers-by as if to encourage them to tell her own. If the displayed sign initially acted as a catalyst for the desired encounter between the artist and passing strangers, it was then left somewhere permanently in the public space after this action.
Extract from the text by Patrice Loubier
