Tag: Constanza Camelo

Colombia

Originally from Columbia, Constanza Camelo has lived and worked in Québec City and Montréal since 1994. Her early performances examined the hybrid cultural identity of her native culture. More recently, she has turned her attention to notions of private and public space through street actions that inscribe a temporary, utopian territory over the existing landscape.

ARTISTS
Constanza Camelo
Kinga Araya
Myriam Laplante
The Two Gullivers (Flutura & Besnik Haxhillari)
Vessna Perunovich

FADO is pleased to present Diaspora, a performance art event that examines the experiences of dispersed and exiled populations. The event will feature five performances followed by a public discussion. Diaspora presents artists from various cultures, now living in Canada, whose performances consider their ‘foreignness.’ Developed by Montréal curator Sonia Pelletier and touring with support from CALQ, Diaspora features performances modified from an initial event presented in 2003 at Galerie Clark in Montréal. A fifth project featuring local artist Vessna Perunovich will be included for this Toronto version of Diaspora.

In consideration of the project, Pelletier writes:

Performance art [is] surely the most immediately expressive way to depict survival, resistance and the accommodation of differences. This commingling, driven by the artists’ concerns with identity issues, leads us to consider how the precarious state of the artist in a foreign land reverberates on one’s own culture, as well as the status of the artist in general…

A major portion of the project is devoted to reflection, with a focus on the identity issues of cultural transformation, hybrid cultures, belonging and cultural transference. …We are also attempting to refashion and re-view the word ‘Diaspora.’ Performative acts convey cultural evidence, but to what extent can one assert one’s belongingness in a world so polarized between Western and non-Western culture? And in the art world, haven’t the concepts of globalization and internationalization gotten confused as well?

Presented in cooperation with Blank Slate with support from the Conseil des art et des lettres du Québec.

ARTISTS
Armand Vaillancourt
Constanza Camelo
Jocelyn Robert
Sylvette Babin
Sylvie Cotton

Curated by Eric Létourneau

FADO is pleased to present Pas de Traduction, a series of street actions featuring Montréal- and Québec-based performance artists. The performances will take place in the Queen Street West and Alexandra Park area. A program detailing the exact locations and nature of the performances will be available on the day of the event from weewerk Gallery (located at 620-A Queen Street West) within walking distance of all of the activities.

Pas de Traduction is the first in a new series of events by FADO that examines the work of various Canadian performance art communities, defined culturally, regionally, ethnically, or aesthetically. This inaugural series focuses on the city of Montréal. Pas de Traduction focuses on the ways interaction between performer and public can take place in site-specific contexts. The title (“no translation”) refers light-heartedly to the traditional tensions between English and French Canada. More importantly, however, the title reflects how the practice of performance privileges direct action and shared presence as a way of expressing ideas and moments that are ephemeral and essentially untranslatable. Pas de Traduction dances among the ambiguities of what needs no translation, what cannot be translated, and what we refuse to translate, focusing on the interpretation process between artist, audience and location.

PROGRAM & EVENTS

Performances
July 12, 2003 @ 12:00pm–5:00pm
Alexandra Park, Toronto

Round Table: Pas de Traduction, moderated by Sonia Pelletier & Johanna Householder
July 13, 2003 @ 11:00am
Metro Hall (meeting room 308), 55 John Street, Toronto