Descrição
Mes rapports avec Renée Legris sont de nature différente selon la position occupée. En effet, Renée en tant que sœur aînée fut aussi mon professeur de littérature au collégial. Je fus son assistante de recherche, puis sa collègue comme professeure d’histoire de l’art à l’UQAM. Au fil de cette chronique mémorielle, la trame présentée ici, en filigrane, voudrait tracer ce circuit entre l’oreille et la bouche en passant par le relais du cœur, car c’est bien de ce va-et-vient entre l’écoute et la parole dont il s’agit. Le huit renversé, la figure de l’infini, signe mathématique, mais aussi figure archétypale articule les mouvements ondulatoires de ces deux pôles : écouter et parler. Qu’il s’agisse de l’essor poétique (Comme harfang de braise, 1991), de l’enseignement, de la recherche constante, de son écriture analytique, de ses émissions comme animatrice et réalisatrice à la radio, il y aura, chez Renée, une oreille attentive et une parole rayonnante. Je voudrais ici relater quelques chemins de traverse qui ont alimenté le parcours de Renée dans sa recherche et ont orienté sa contribution essentielle à plus d’un égard. ||My associations with Renée Legris varied with the different situations each one of us was in at different times in our lifes. Renée, as much as she was my older sister, was also my professor of literature at college. Then I was her research assistant and later became her colleague as professor of art history at UQAM. Throughout this chronicle in memory of Renée, the various intertwined motions of speaking and listening seem to link the ear to the mouth via the heart. In fact, this back-and-forth of listening and speaking constitutes a primal experience. The figure 8, turned sideways, depicts the infinity sign, a mathematical symbol, but it also represents an archetypical figure articulating the reverberating movements of the two juxtaposed actions: listening and speaking. May it bring about a poetic resurgence (like Harfang de Braise, 1991), teaching, continuous research, analytical writings, radio broadcasts as animator and director, there will be for Renée an attentive ear and resonating words. I would like to relate here a few circumstances she encountered during her passage through life which oriented and shaped her intellect and her creative abilities to render a contribution that cannot easily be overlooked.
