Programming

DARE-DARE invites you to participate in a workshop and storytelling evening led by Jad Orphée Chami, as part of his micro-residency at La HALTE.

July 17, 2026, starting at 7:00 p.m.
La HALTE (Sainte-Cunégonde Park) 

l’appel du rhapsode

This micro-residency extends the artist’s exploration of the act of bearing witness in the context of mourning in exile. Here, he explores the figure of the rhapsode—one who pieces together the fragments of a scattered memory and carries the voice of those who are no longer here. Drawing on the HALTE collection, Jad Orphée Chami aims to create a constellation of works centered on the returning voice, oral transmission, and narratives of loss, and then to bring them into dialogue with his own archives. 

The residency will then evolve into a physical embodiment of this approach. Jad Orphée Chami will first lead a short, accessible workshop—open to everyone—exploring the memory of a place and the objects that carry it. This workshop will conclude with a storytelling evening, interwoven with sources drawn from the HALTE collection, during which the artist will recount stories of unresolved grief and imagined possible worlds in Lebanon. The event will take place in a warm, Levantine atmosphere, accompanied by pastries and knowing smiles, echoing the traditions of hospitality from which the artist hails.

Jad Orphée Chami

Jad Orphée Chami is an artist-researcher, composer, and rhapsodist based in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal, originally from Beirut. A recipient of the Antje Bettin Intercultural Fund Award, he was nominated at age 21 for the Iris Award for Best Original Score for *Antigone*, the film that represented Canada at the 92nd Academy Awards and won the Best Canadian Film Award at TIFF. The Foundation SOCAN, which awarded him first place in the Emerging Composers Competition for music for visual media in the documentary category, has also produced soundtracks for award-winning, selected, and widely screened fiction films, documentaries, and animated films in Quebec and internationally.

He embraces the figure of the rhapsode—one who weaves together songs—to make the role of the witness the guiding light of his artistic and methodological approach. Inspired by the methodologies of oral history, he grounds his work in listening, storytelling, and fabulation. Also a performer, he was invited to appear in Tino Sehgal’s iconic work *This Situation*, presented at the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art.

With support from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, he is preparing his first EP of French-language songs, blending Levantine jazz with baroque pop, produced by Lewis Lines.

About the micro-residences at La HALTE

The micro-residencies at La HALTE are an initiative of the Espace critique committee, which supports research and reflection.

This residency invites artists selected by the committee to undertake a very brief research experience in the public space at La HALTE (a center for reference and reflection on art in public spaces). DARE-DARE makes the center’s library available for artists to explore over a two-day period, drawing from it elements or combinations that are meaningful, flamboyant, contradictory, or intuitive. These micro-residencies aim to question and (re)invigorate our relationships with reading, archives, and exchange.