Andrea Langlois et al - Islands of Resistance - Pirate Radio in Canada

CHAP TER 11
Pirate Radio and Maneuver
Radical Artistic Practices in Québec
André Éric Létourneau
when art is practiced within the context of
unauthorized broadcasting, radio space becomes the place and
medium of a radicalized art. This chapter will examine how pirate
radio broadcasting falls within the parameters of a specific art practice
— the “maneuver.” Here, the term maneuver refers to an artistic
act that is interdisciplinary, immaterial and, for the most part, has a
limited visible component. Stemming from the performance art and
happenings of the 1960s and 1970s, the maneuver seeks to dematerialize
the art object to the point of near total interference with time,
space and the environment by placing the action, rather than the artist,
at the centre of the process. A maneuver occurs without permission
within society, geographical space and lived experience, and is
almost entirely intangible. This disembodied practice — broadcasting
within public space without obtaining permission — makes it a perfect
partner to pirate radio. As a result, the maneuver often appears to
be a social experiment in which participants interact within the context
of an art initiative with no tangible artwork, no passive spectator
and no individual artist. In effect, the public becomes co-creator of the
artwork. 1
Even though the maneuver has various antecedents in the sphere of
art, its theoretical foundations lie in the work of the artist Alain-Martin
Richard, a member of Québec City’s collective Inter/Le Lieu in the
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