Viva Viva!

So last night I THINK I maybe saw the best piece of art I will potentially see all year. Or at least, the best performance. But maybe art. But maybe performance….oh dear me. You see, the person responsible for the piece actually blew up my mind, so thinking has been a wee difficult since.

Picture it - Viva! Art Action’s second installation (installation being second time the festival’s been crafted together) and we’re all at Bain Saint Michel (5300 St Dominique) where the majority of the festival is going on. People are waiting for the first performance, from Belgium’s Gwendoline Robin, and I am thinking again about how much I dislike performance art in general.

Which is funny, because almost all of the papers I have ever written have been about performance, just by chance, and I find myself here at a performance festival, just by chance, and maybe I was on one of the selection committees, just by chance. But performance art is soooo annoying, and boring, and self-indulgent.

It also really isn’t. It also has this uber-potential, of the sort that Katamari has when it has gathered many objects, to reconfigure my sense of self or at least self-in-relation (which is likely what self is to a large degree) and make me stop breathing and change the ways in which or add to those that I spend time thinking of this and and and.

That said, a medium with such gobs of powerful responsibility and consideration is often one that suffers from too many people engaging with it, and engaging with it in shallow or less-than-thoughtful ways. I gotta say it, I think it’s true. And I think that, as an audience member, my role is one of active participant in a way that truly goes beyond what that mundane majority do when encountering art, which more-than-often includes myself. This requires a certain attentiveness that is at the best of times pretty draining and hard to find within oneself. Especially in my look-there-no-here-bam-bam-change-the-flickr-time-to-go-elsewhere culture.

But the stuff of the likes that Robin creates, executes, exhudes, helps surpass all of my issues of presence and of pretention or thinking-while-I-watch. She cuts through that dissonance like a knife, like the shards she broke off her rod of glass that she started her piece with. And let me say here and now that while I will describe her actions, that’s nothing in comparison to her actions themselves. Not one bit, not a whit, barely similar, almost opposite.

Imagine trying to describe a performance by your favourite musician. They played a bunch and they didn’t play a bunch. If you only use actions, you’re really not getting to the heart of the matter. Which you can’t really do, not just in words. Or else Gwendoline (I suppose) would have just written a little essay about her work and stayed in.

Basically, long and short, she came, she lit paper on fire, in her hands, and then a helmet, BOOM, on her head, after putting on coats and taping her neck (balaclava eyes staring out) and the coil on the helmet looking like a stove, spiralling round and round who would have thought that upon impact, the fuse wouldn’t just slowy weave its way to the centre of her skull no it didn’t there was nothing slow about it, she offered us no time to watch or ponder or panic she just

blew off her head.

And in doing so, she blew everyone’s head off as well. Trust me on this. I can attest, I have a mirror, what more can I say.

Gwendoline Robin knows about phrasing, and pace. The rhythm in her performance was of the kind that allows for momentum, breath, and a dissolving of outside concerns. One thing that makes much durational work seem overly this-or-that I think might be a lack of attention to phrasing. In this way, the body in performance, like the body in so much (music, physical comedy, dance) responds to space as much as it responds to mass.

There were 2 other performances that night, and you can read about some of it on the Viva! Blog, but to be honest, I needed to go home straight away after she had blown our collective minds. I would explain, but I doubt I need to. What else could you do? So much power, adrenaline and intention would have been enough in and of itself, but then I had to tend to my physical meltdown as well. Anything else would have been rash and impudent.

Of special note, Viva! has a 6:30 pm supper call every day during the fest, and last night it was beef stew (vegetarian options) and it looked seriously really good. Only $5, and a great way to hang out with folks/support the festival. Go go go! I will eat the stuff off your plate you don’t want.

Let’s build a giant room-sized theremin with 16 antennas!

We would like to invite the tag-team of artist/engineers David Beaulieu and Christian Pelletier to this year’s Pop Montreal International Music Festival (September 30 - October 4) and see them build a Theremin room in our special Art Pop and POP Symposium headquarters.

The duo was last seen breaking musical boundaries with their loud-speaker suits worn by Patrick Watson and his musicians at this year’s Festival de Jazz de Montréal.

The installation of massive proportions we want them to build will invite festival-goers to participate (alone, or in groups!) in the creation of on-site, mind-blowing, improvised music as they interact in a room with 16 antennas suspended above and around them. As they are activated, the antennas trigger psychedelic sounds that are bound to excite and solicit interest from all sorts of human beings

It’s gonna be spontaneous, it’s gonna be an immediate and visceral experience, it’s gonna be communally created art instantly diffused, IT’S GONNA BE SO COOL! We’re asking all lovers of theremins, lovers of art, lovers of interactive experiences, lovers of electricity, lovers of music and lovers of the world everywhere to help us make this project happen. Your money will be used to pay for David & Christian’s hard work and the equipment they will need to make this happen.

Check out our kickstarter page, where you’ll see all the amazing REWARDS we’re offering to people that back this project. Among those, you’ll find:

• a limited edition DVD of animations made by local animators
• a DIY theremin kit
• a hand silk-screened limited edition t-shirt with a theremin on it
• an mp3 of an exclusive track from Gentleman Reg or Dishwasher
• a FULL PAGE photo of you in the Pop Montreal segment program
• a VIP Festival Pass to the Pop Montreal International Music Festival
• a personal festival friend and a cozy bed to sleep in
• a musical about you and 3 of your friends, written and performed by us. we will tape it in Montreal in front of a live audience, and send it to you.
• a custom-made Loudspeaker Suit built by Beaulieu and Pelletier

Get your MPD on tonight

If you want to see everything there is to see tonight, you better work your multiple personality disorder to your advantage:

-

• The animations of Stefan Gruber at Monastiraki (5478 St-Laurent) tonight at 8pm. His work has fluid animation and a trippy aesthetic that echoes the nonchalant sophistication of comix artists like Ron Regé Jr.

-

• Before that though, you should stop by right next door, over at Le Cagibi (5490 St. Laurent), for the vernissage of an exhibition featuring the costumes, props and photos from the in-progress short film, Smile Stealers. This is happening from 5pm to 7pm.

-

• The second edition of the Montreal 60 Second Film Festival is having its (free) Registration Party down the street at La Sala Rossa (4848 boul. St-Laurent) from 8:30pm to 11:30pm. The idea is simple: the first 120 filmmakers to sign up each make a 60 second film that will be screened in september. Entertainment will include performances by Julie Lequin (of her “This American Life” submission), magician Sébastien Talbot, zoetrope workshop, screentests - not to mention doorprizes featuring original art created for M60! More info on this incredible project here.

-

• For the 18th year in a row, Groupe Intervention Vidéo presents Vidéos de femmes dans le parc (VFP), showing 17 short video works by awesome ladies, including forever-mammoth-favorite Kim Kielhofner. This is happening at the Théâtre de Verdure in Parc Lafontaine, 9 pm.

June 18th: Thoday is Thrazy Thursday

Brace yourselves, there are (at least) three art openings to go to today (Thursday the 18th). They all start at 7pm, and I hope you can find a way to see everything without missing Corpusse’s performance at Zoobizarre later tonight. Details below:

_

1. Osvaldo Ramirez Castillo at Galerie Push (7-9pm)

It’s no secret that we’re big fans of his intense and riveting creatures (see Kit’s post below). His Bestiairies show is staying at PUSH (5264 St. Laurent) until the 26th of July.

_

2. The Emporium State of Mind (7-11pm)

The product of a collaboration between The Emporium Gallery (3035 St. Antoine Ouest #74) and Montreal State of Mind: a “media spanning group exhibition that will exemplify Montreal State of Mind’s mission- to promote the inherent creativity of those who live in Montreal done through the Emporium Gallery’s curation”. The exhibition features the work of Fangs, Amber Albrecht, Sean Orena, Alexi Hobbs, 123Klan, RAGE5, Robb Jamieson, Kit Malo (!), Julien de Repentigny, Astro, Dave Arnold, Ben Pobjoy and Danielle Levy. They are 13 Montreal-based visual artists, who will each be exhibiting one artwork priced at a maximum of $200CAD

_

3. A Red Bird Studios Group Show at General 54, 7pm

General 54 (54 St-Viateur O) is hosting a group show put up by the artist-run arts space Red Bird. The exhibition showcases the work of its diverse group of painters, sculptors, graphic designers and silk screeners, each one exploring their individual practice and methodology within the material constraints of a 10″x10″ canvas board. There will also be cake supplied by Cocoa Locale (best cupcakes in town, and I know what I’m talking about) and 10% off everything in the store!

Artists include: Sarah Courtemanche, Dan Buller, Kit Malo (!), Oksana, Rebecca Rosen, Jayce Yam, Mark Dixon, Julien Ceccaldi (!), Katie Earle, John Player, Andrea Kastner, Colin Lyons, Corrie Peterson, Kim Kielhofner, Naomi Cook, Lisa Wilson, Daniel Nessler, Rachel Berger, Becky Emlaw, Shannon Kelly, Konan Cook, and others…

_

4. Where you must be after all the art and cake (Zoobizarre, 9pm)

Starting at 9pm, Suoni per il popolo presents Corpusse (TO), The Unireverse (Mtl) and Knurl (TO). There will be everything you could need by then (besides art and cake), i.e. synth action, confrontational performance and raw noise.

I’m especially looking forward to seeing Corpusse do his thing: it will be primitive hardcore punk with a synthesizer, and it will involve glitter and nice make-up. Here’s a video of his last performance at Zoobizarre (6388 St-Hubert) in October 2006.

_

Vernissage Tonight at Galerie Push

I waked by Galerie Push (5264 St Laurent) yesterday as they were setting up for their new show, and what I saw of it was very pleasing. The paintings of Suzanne Déry & Justin Stephens caught my eyes and got me real excited with their nonchalant and humorous edge.

The couple will be sharing the space with Pierre-luc Brouillette and, momentarily tonight, with Dominique Sirois, a personal fave of mine who will be performing in the gallery at 6pm. The vernissage starts then, and it ends at 9pm. The show itself is up until the end of the month.

Speaking of May Day…

Someone definitely hit the month of May with the awesome-stick, because on May 2nd, there will be a crazy carnival/fundraiser over at the Eastern Bloc (7240 Clark). It is co-hosted by Paper and Pine and here’s a few of the things you’ll find there:

BOOTHS! GAMES! SNACKS! BINGO! LIFE COACHING! KARAOKE! BINGO! NEW LOVE! VARIETY SHOW! THEATRE!

Indeed, an evening not to be missed. 2 dollars to get in, doors open at 8pm.

MAYDAY MAYDAY!

Man, May just keeps getting better and better. Such a juicy month, it’s like I ordered a visual-arts thick cut-steak and it’s in the process of getting cooked up for me. Oh yeah. That actually sounds absolutely perverse, but it’s Friday, so I think that’s an acceptable tone all things considered.

So the REASON why May is getting better and better is that I forgot that it is the Montreal Biennale again, from May 1st until the end of the month. Oh yeah. One of the things I love about the Biennale is how they focus not only on local amazingness in the form of talented artists, but on the creative links between curators and their selected peoples, and the collaborations that arise from the whole darn process.

In fact, the festival website talks about the open culture model that the Biennale is shaping this year’s vision with, a stance that allows for a deeper exploration of the relationship between the artistic process and creativity, of communal sharing and cooperation.

I’ll be doing a little guide for folks interested in exploring the nooks and crannies of what this Biennale has to offer, but as a little tantalizing tidbit (before the main STEAK COURSE) I’d like to mention that the fest has programmed Rick Leong (whose painting you see here) in collaboration with a musician, as well as ROADSWORTH, my favourite graffiti artist of all time.

I am very much looking forward to perusing the program in a more indepth way this weekend to offer you, dear reader, an intimate guide to all the other bits and snacks the Biennale has in store for you.

Now I am going to go eat lunch, because frank(furter)ly, these food metaphors are starting to irritate me.

Lalie Douglas is going to take your fears away….

In time for the season of spring-cleaning type activities comes a spring-cleaning-of-the-mind based in performative and interactive art, in the form of an articule Special Project run by local artist Lalie Douglas. Take your fears away  is a project that, similar to a side-of-the-road gas station that simply declares, “PETROL”, fulfills exactly what it suggests it will. Nothing coquettish here, folks, just plain and simple fear-ridding-techniques.

The basics: you email Lalie (takeyourfearsaway@gmail.com) with whatever fears you might wish to be no longer, and Douglas will then go to Calgary with those fears to, “be transformed into site specific installations, performances and other interventions designed to symbolically overcome, diminish and otherwise seek to remove the power these fears may hold over you.”

How cool does that sound? How appropriate that Montrealers and Calgarians (Is that right? are you people Calgarians? It’s not like you’re called Rodeogonians or something….?) SWAP fears? Douglas is almost re-enacting what happens on a psychic level daily.

Our Quebec-infused versions of psychoses and terrors will be collected in the month of April and May, and then Douglas will travel with them to Calgary, to return to us in June to present, expel, and rid Rodeogonians of their fears here. I expect to see clear suitcases of grade A beef strewn across St.Laurent with a few papier-mache oil rigs here and there…but just as one’s treasurer is another’s junk, so too is one’s nightmare another’s dream. I guess we’ll find out.

Go get your robe and necklace already…

Tonight, performance artists/ruffian Jason Harvey and his cohort Michael Farsky, (at least in this endeavour) plan to marry cats, mystic dance, and hypnotize some folks, all in front of you.

A large-scale interdisciplinary art event, Demon Night promises to be, in their words, a “bright cosmic passage on to a new echeleon of existence. Feeling one with every person in the same room, learning and sharing a new found understanding and strength. Be free and be joyous, and spread the light that is within you!”

I am going to personally be in Vermont being one with a bunch of strangers and mountain views, but if you are sticking around Montreal, the night starts at 11pm and the loft it is in will be completely transformed to look like a giant womb, (no comment) replete with a “cuddle wing”, so you might end up not leaving until the wee hours of the morning at the earliest.

It is at Lab.synthese, which is located at 435 Beaubien West. There IS a cover charge, and it IS $5 which includes a robe and necklace.

Of the feelings of Sam, or feelings in general….Part II - Feelings

The Greasy Goose Salon is now an important Montreal institution. Can you be an institution if your claim to fame is a salon-type informal/formal/entre-les-deux gathering of minds around specific topics in various cafes and spaces? I believe you can indeed. Institution is what we define it to be, and currently that includes for me the Greasy Goose Salon AND backribs. Man, how I want to eat a good institutional rack of ribs RIGHT NOW. Anyone know of any good rib joint in town that’s NOT the Bar-B-Barn?

Anyhow, I am a blab-meister. The next Salon is ALSO THIS THURSDAY. Here’s the details:

Topic: FEELING

Thursday, April 16th, 7:30pm.
Cagibi, 5490 St. Laurent, at St. Viateur (Montreal)

Featuring presentations by:
*Sofia Gassieva — How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Civet
*Coral Short – Performing Intimacy
*Raji Sohal — “Feeling: More than a Thought?” Sound and Theory in Janet Cardiff’s Audio Walks
*Julia Thomas — Draw Your Doubt, accompanied by Laura Horn, Madeleine Tait, Lilian Belknap and Fjola Evans

Followed by the Cagibi 2nd anniversary party! DJ Mitz and enormous nacho platters for all!

Dudes, go to this to find out what a Civet is if you don’t know already. Refuse the temptation to google it. Just leave it as a mystery for a few more days. Think of how you’ll FEEL about it when you finally figure it out. It’ll be wonderful. 

This would likely ALSO cost $38 to get to from the airport.