Jean Couteau is a multidisciplinary art collective manifested as a fictional character. The name is a portmanteau of the ubiquitous pharmacy Jean Coutu, the eminent poet-filmmaker Jean Cocteau, and the underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau.
The project is equal parts performance, installation, music, and social practice. The musical elements are constructed around traditions of popular music in the broadest sense, with an emphasis on vocals as the most psychologically powerful instrument. Jean Couteau is a multiplicity of voices, connecting Quebec and the United States in their murky shared history; we are also a representation of the non-differences, both aesthetic and cultural, between these two peoples.
Les V'là was a two exhibition presented at the University of Sherbrooke’s Espace Invitation de la galerie Antoine-Sirois, and the espace Groupe Mach. Les V'là: the mixtape was released as a limited edition cassette in tandem with the exhibition.
A How-to Guide to DIY Radio, Canadian Art (final issue), Spring, 2021.
Left Hand was presented at /Undefine Radio’s pirate radio/gallery on the Plaza Saint-Hubert in Montréal, 2021. Jean Couteau offered one-on-one musical palm readings to passer-bys.
Twenty Twenty Twenty-Four Hours on Foundry Laundry Radio was performed from midnight June 30, until midnight July 1, 2020, at the Darling Foundry, Montreal.
The End Is Near at The Little Gallery of San Bernardino, California, February - April 2020:
A Christmas Gift For You at Foundry Laundry, Montreal, 20 December, 2019:
Jean Couteau appeared on CIBL 101,5 Tiohtià:ke | Montréal radio atelier, 30 September, 2019.
https://www.radioatelier.ca/emissions/no-58-30-septembre-2019/
(Performance starts around 42:30):
Galerie Deux Poissons, Montreal, May 21, 2019:
