Figure de l’indiscipline. Domingo Cisneros, un parcours artistique atypique

Abstract

Between 1974 et 1996, the Canadian artist of Mexican origin Domingo Cisneros was seen as a leading figure in contemporary art in Canada. He played a major role in the process of self-determination that First Nations artists undertook following the infamous 1969 White Paper, the Statement of the Government of Canada on Indian Policy. Cisneros was recognized both in the Native and Quebec francophone contemporary art worlds, and was internationally acclaimed within the conceptual and contextual art milieu gathered around the Polish artist Jan Swidzinski. His contribution has nevertheless been forgotten. Coinciding with his seventy-fifth birthday, this article aims to review, conceptually frame, and contextualize Cisneros’s role and impact on the Canadian art scene. It argues that his interdisciplinarity, or “indiscipline,” was instrumental in building connexions and bridges between heterogeneous values, cultural protocols, and epistemological principles.