“…In Lay them all down (2020), as Michel moves through physical frustration with humor and candor, Maurice drives the camera over the floor, amplifying all sounds, using her body as a tripod that advances and collapses. This is not mere documentation, but a video and performance laboratory that asks if mutual understanding can come from really looking at each other. Both Michel and Maurice dress and undress, follow each other, and create dichotomies around closeness, dimension, speed, and noise. Dancer, filmmaker, camera, and audience are all engaged in the simple yet elusive action of focused observation. Dana Michel and Tracy Maurice film and wear objects that propel them outside comfort and cliché. What remains is the intuitive outburst to be seen and be together, regardless of outcome.”

– Amelia Bande for Berlinale 2020

This collaborative work was filmed over three plus weeks in the spaces of the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal in fall 2018, during the artists’ performance of JAMS DO JAMS in the context of the Françoise Sullivan retrospective.Influenced by sculpture, humour, hip-hop, cinema, technology, poetry, psychology, and social commentary, Michel moves through the space expressing anger, sensuality, confusion, strength, discomfort, and pleasure. Maurice films her with a handheld camera, sometimes setting it down on the floor so that its microphone can capture the vibrations produced by the dancer’s movements. The work demonstrates how a mutual understanding can develop between two people sharing the same space over time.