Curated and presented by FADO Performance Art Centre at the 7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art. Supported by the Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Toronto.

I was there, because I’m here now. I was there, even before being an idea in my mother’s head.

—Francesca Fini

I was there is a live art project where the traditional languages of documentary and “mockumentary” are subverted and updated while blending with the surrealism of live media performance. In the performance, the artist approaches the past of Western civilization—and the one of her own family—by digitally and lively inserting herself into historical pictures and movies. Fini sabotages the past in a metaphysical scenario that integrates live media, video projections and chroma key technology, and ends up losing herself while becoming “part of the picture.” It’s an impossible encounter with the past, with culture, and with family, in which space and time collapse into the ideal dimension of performance art.

PROGRAM & EVENTS

Performance: I was there by Francesca Fini
November 1, 2014 @ 8:00 pm

Performance Art Dailies Panel: Uncomfortable Physicalities
With Francesca Fini, Eduardo Oramas, Andrée Weschler and moderator Tanya Mars
November 1, 2014 @ 1:00pm

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The Toronto Performance Art Collective (TPAC) is a not-for-profit, artist-driven collective that curates and produces the 7a11d International Festival of Performance Art—English Canada’s oldest ongoing biennial of performance art. 7a11d was established in 1997 by a group of performance artists, collectives, and organizers, eager to develop a forum for performance art in Toronto. The first 7a11d International Festival of Performance Art took place in August 1997 and presented the work of 60 local, national and international artists. The 10th edition takes place from October 29–November 2, 2014.

© Francesca Fini, I was there, 2014. Photo Henry Chan.