Tag: Stefan St. Laurent

Canada

Stefan St-Laurent, multidisciplinary artist and curator, was born in Moncton, New-Brunswick and lives and works in Gatineau. He was the invited curator for the Biennale d’art performatif de Rouyn-Noranda in 2008, and for the 28th and 29th Symposium international d’art contemporain de Baie-Saint-Paul in 2010 and 2011. From 2002 to 2011, he worked as curator of Galerie SAW Gallery, and has been an adjunct professor in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Ottawa since 2010. His performance and video work has been presented in numerous galleries and institutions, including the Centre national de la photographie in Paris, Edsvik Konst och Kultur in Sollentuna in Sweden, YYZ in Toronto, Western Front in Vancouver and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax. He has been a curator and programmer for a number of artistic organizations and festivals, including the Lux Centre in London, the Cinémathèque Québécoise in Montréal, the Festival international du cinéma francophone in Acadie, the Rencontres internationales Vidéo Arts Plastiques in Basse-Normandie, France, the Festival international du cinema francophone en Acadie in Moncton, as well as Pleasure Dome, Images Festival of Independent Film and Video and Vtape in Toronto. He is currently director of the artist-run centre AXENÉO7 in Gatineau.

Source: https://www.artseverywhere.ca/author/stefanstlaurent/

ARTISTS
Collette Jacques
Suzanne Joly
Stefan St-Laurent
The Two Gullivers

Curated by Paul Couillard

FADO Performance Art Centre, in collaboration with La Galerie du Nouvel-Ontario and the Toronto Free Gallery, is pleased to present Territoires de Langue. For this project, five francophone artists have been invited to undertake interventions that respond to the question: To what extent does language determine experience? The artists will work in two distinct environments, Toronto and Sudbury, spending a week in each location engaging in street actions and public “manoeuvres.” Join us for a bilingual public presentation in which the artists will share the results of their Toronto research through performances and discussions.

Does each of us have a “place,” a spot where we belong? When we enter space, do we become a part of that space, or do we simply confirm our irresistible, insurmountable isolation? To what extent do we become place by being in place? To what extent does a place, by containing us, become us? What does it mean when we bring particular languages to particular surroundings? To what extent does language determine experience? Is the Francophone “Nouvel-Ontario” different from the Anglophone “Northern Ontario,” for example? Does language cut across regional difference? Can it transcend the divide between a large urban centre like Toronto and a more rural northern community like Sudbury?

Performance gestures offer the potential for psychic (that is, emotional, psychological and spiritual) affect, as well as social and physical effect. For this series, five French-language artists will develop site-specific performance gestures for both Toronto and Sudbury, using tactics that explore the idea of “putting in place.” These gestures—whether or not they utilize spoken word—constitute forms of language, ones that are no doubt inflected by the artists’ native tongue. How translatable will these gestures be? How will these artists use the language of performance to make space for themselves, to “belong?