Artist
Soufïa Bensaïd

Soufïa Bensaïd, CHARCO Exchange, 2015. Photo Isabel León.

Tunisia / Canada
www.soufiabensaid.com

At 5 years old I am an artist. At 10 years old I am a detective. At 15 years old I am a searcher. At 20 years old I am a student of mathematics and physics. At 25 years old I am a hydraulic engineer. At 30 years old I am an immigrant in Canada. At 35 years old I am free. At 40 years old I am an artist.

I was lucky enough to cross and live in multiple cultures, societies and professional environments between Tunisia where I was born, France where I studied and Canada where I live now. This path allowed me to live a transformational identity, and question the perception gaps and the foundation of oneness and existence. My art practice is interdisciplinary. It uses what comes to it to achieve a research, face a question, encounter what is here. To receive the present. It is at the intersection of performance art, site specific action, installation, writing, drawing, movement, relational esthetic, participatory projects. Being in relation/in relationship to, attentive to, present with, is at the foundation of my work. The relationship between oneself and one other offers a field of presence, a field of consciousness that facilitates transmissions. As such, I am interested in the way relationships reflect our perception of the world while offering opportunities for transformation. Influenced by a scientific background, my work points links between art, philosophy and science. Through the performance, installation and art pieces I offer experiences that question the subjectivity of each one perception, beliefs and reference systems.

Performance
CHARCO Exchange

ARTISTS
Ana Matey (Spain)
Isabel León (Spain)
Serge Olivier Fokoua (Cameroon/Canada)
Soufïa Bensaïd (Tunisia/Canada)

FADO is pleased to be facilitating the LIVE ART EXCHANGE’s Canadian edition: CHARCO EXCHANGE. Presented in partnership with DARE-DARE, Link&Pin, and Rats9 in Montréal; and VideoFag in Toronto, CHARCO EXCHANGE happens between two cities from May 11–30, 2015.

The first phase takes place in Montréal from May 11–23 and will culminate in a public sharing where works in progress/creation will be presented. The duos working together (who have already started the process before meeting in person through email, writing, Skype, etc.) are Sofia and Ana; and Isabel and Olivier. In the last week of the project, the four artists move to Toronto where they continue their research, with a final sharing of the work produced will take place on Saturday, May 30, in an event that will include live specimens, lectures and an exhibition of the process carried out.

LIVE ART EXCHANGE is a process-based research and creation project initiated by Ana Matey and Isabel Leon in 2012, and has realized projects with dozens of artists in Spain, Finland and Norway. An ongoing research project on communication and interpretation of messages between individuals, using performance and action art as the basis for this research, LIVE ART EXCHANGE is interested in collective creation and believes that artistic creation is a live act, without boundaries or limits. The project manifests in a variety of proposals including meetings, residencies, workshops, talks and other outcomes including photography, video, and performance working with artists and creative people from different disciplines, backgrounds and origins. LIVE ART EXCHANGE proposes focusing on the artistic process and the artists themselves, rather than the outcome or production of specific works. In this project, the research around ideas of ​​communication-interpretation and the process of creation itself goes beyond the outcome of the play itself.

DARE-DARE supports research and valorizes emerging practices. Its members are interested in the context of creation and answer the need for exchange and collaboration. DARE-DARE is a flexible, open space devoted to research, experimentation, risk and critical inquiry. The artist-run centre manifests a sustained interest in exploration and in the diversity in the modes of presentation.

LINK&PIN is an international performance art series based in Montréal, Canada. It is organized and curated by Adriana Disman along with a huge amount of support from the local performance art community. It holds a constantly changing mission in an effort to stay relevant. Currently, L&P strives to support artists who are in some way marginalized and engages with thinking through anti-disciplinarity and the politics of arts funding.

RATS9 est un espace positif et inclusif où il est possible, à travers l’art, d’engager une conversation à propos des enjeux féministes, post/dé-coloniaux et queer. Notre mission est d’offrir un support à la création et à la diffusion d’artistes dont le travail aborde les problématiques liées à l’identité sexuelle, ainsi qu’aux pratiques anti-oppressive. Rats9 strives to be a positive and inclusive space where it’s possible, be through art, to engage in conversations about feminism, post-/de-coloniality, and queerness. Our mission is to offer support for the creation and diffusion of artists whose work addresses issues related to sexual identity, as well as anti-oppressive practice.

VIDEOFAG is a storefront cinema and performance lab in Toronto’s Kensington Market, dedicated to the creation and exhibition of video, film, new media, and live art. The space is run by Jordan Tannahil and William Ellis, who converted the space from an old barbershop in October 2012.

Performance Yellow

This fragrance opens us to the question, has the show started? It's winter, the theatre is colder than the street and the room is filled with people and all their winter smells: wet faux leather, down, too much shampoo, and beer breath. The atmosphere is a trickster. Am I late, am I early?

Top Notes

yellow mandarin, mimosa

Middle Notes

honey, chamomile, salt

Base Notes

narcissus, guaiac wood, piss, beer