Tag: Tanya Mars

ARTISTS
Adriana Disman
Alice de Visscher
Amélie Laurence Fortin
Caroline Gagné
Evamaria Schaller
Georges Azzaria
Jocelyn Robert
Liina Kuittinen
Nadège Grebmeier Forget
Olga Prokhorova
Ronnie Clark
Tanya Mars

Twelve artists are invited to present a twelve-minute audiovisual sort-of-self-portrait.

One (Sommes Personnes). A self that is one, just one, one amongst many. But that’s still you, still in a room different from anywhere else—the present of presence fully in a here and now deferred by pressing record. Portraiture that eschews the frontal in favour of the partial—the barely there, the fleeting, the merely-passing-by, the a-bit-askew. Staying still, but not stiff. Alive and well, simply at ease with the minutes passing, the unmomentous moment. The room we see might be the One’s home but does not need to be. The person you almost see is One that could be You but is not.

The single-take recordings will be stretched from twelve to fifteen minutes (à la Warhol). Eight of the resulting 15 minutes will be presented in groups of four during the first and last hours of the twelve-hour event. Each One will be presented on its own, as one, followed by another one, and so on. So, there are four solos in a quartet, times two. The remaining four will be presented at the end of hours 7, 8, 9, and 10.

This edition is presented by FADO. Artist selection done in collaboration by Christof Migone and Shannon Cochrane.

SCHEDULE

12:00pm EST
One Number One by Tanya Mars
One Number Two by Ronnie Clark
One Number Three by Olga Prokhorova
One Number Four by Liina Kuittinen

5:45pm EST
One Number Five by Nadège Grebmeier Forget

7:45pm EST
One Number Six by Adriana Disman

8:45pm EST
One Number Seven by Alice de Visscher & Evamaria Schaller

9:45pm EST
One Number Eight by Alice de Visscher & Evamaria Schaller

11:00pm EST
One Number Nine by Amélie Laurence Fortin
One Number Ten by Georges Azzaria
One Number Eleven by Jocelyn Robert
One Number Twelve by Caroline Gagné

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For programming for the full twelve hours, plus start times for all time zones, click on the project links.

One (Sommes Personnes) is the fourth edition of Different From The One Place Time Mood Mindset You Are In Now, taking up a total of three hours out of the twelve-hour event Are (Sommes Sonnes) happening for twelve hours on December 12, 2023. Are (Sommes Sonnes) is part of Christof Migone’s epic twelve-year project entitled, You And I Are Water Earth Fire Air Of Life And Death.

Are (Sommes Sonnes) is presented by Avatar to close their 30th anniversary celebrations.

10 artists. 10 score writers. A score is an old term for ‘twenty’ of something = A Score of Scores.

ARTISTS & SCORE WRITERS
Abedar Kamgari & Naseh Kamgari
Holly Timpener & Enok Ripley
James Knott & Francisco-Fernando Granados
Keith Cole & David Roche
Laura Paolini & Tomasz Szrama
Mikiki & Jan Peacock
Paul Couillard & Elvira Santamaría-Torres
Rita Camacho Lomeli & Alejandro Tamayo
SA Smythe & Autumn Knight
Tanya Mars & Myriam Laplante

Put together by Shannon Cochrane and Francesco Gagliardi

FADO’s spring performance art series invites 10 artists to perform the interpretation of a performance score, written for them by an artist of their own choosing. Artists from across a spectrum of practices grounded in live performance (including cabaret, music, experimental composition, intermedia, video and more) interpret a score designed for them by an array of Canadian and international artists. The duos have chosen to strategize their collaboration in myriad ways—from conspiring together to revealing the final score only moments before the live presentation.

Emerging in the early 1960s in the context of the FLUXUS movement and in conversation with the expanded compositional practices of John Cage and LaMonte Young, “event scores” relied on elements of collaboration, improvisation, and chance to challenge traditional understandings of originality and artistic creation. Often very short, event scores typically consisted of lists of prompts and instructions ranging from the mundane to the elusively abstract and were circulated among fellow artists with an open invitation to interpret and perform them however they wanted. 

A Score of Scores is an experimental back-to-basics platform for artists to create new small-scale work in a spirit of experimentation, collaboration, and agility.

PROGRAM
May 12, 2023 @ 7:00pm: James Knott, Tanya Mars
May 13, 2023 @ 7:00pm: Keith Cole, Laura Paolini
May 18, 2023 @ 7:00pm: Paul Couillard, Holly Timpener
May 19, 2023 @ 7:00pm: Mikiki, SA Smythe
May 20, 2023 @ 7:00pm: Rita Camacho Lomeli, Abedar Kamgari

© Tanya Mars, CRONE, 2017. Photo by Henry Chan.

USA / Canada
www.tanyamars.com

Tanya Mars is a feminist performance artist who has been involved in the Canadian art scene since 1973. She was a founding member and director of Powerhouse Gallery (La Centrale) in Montreal (the first women’s art gallery in Canada), editor of Parallelogramme magazine for 13 years, and very active in ANNPAC (the Association of National Non-Profit Artist-run Centres) for 15 years. She has also been an active member of other arts organizations since the early 70’s. Her work is often characterized as visually rich layers of spectacular, satirical feminist imagery. She has performed widely across Canada, and internationally: Svalbard, Chile, Mexico City, Sweden, Denmark, France, China, Finland and the US.

She is co-editor with Johanna Householder of Caught in the Act: an anthology of performance art by Canadian women (2004), and More Caught in the Act (2016), both published by YYZ books and partners. She was a member of the 7a*11d (1998-2022) that produces a bi-annual International Festival of Performance Art in Toronto.

In 2004, Mars was named Artist of the Year for the Untitled Arts Awards in Toronto. She is the recipient of a 2008 Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts and was an International Artist in Residence at La Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris in 2008. In addition, a book on her work published by FADO and edited by Paul Couillard, Ironic to Iconic: The Performance Works of Tanya Mars, was launched in 2008.

In the 70s and 80s Mars’ work focused on creating spectacular feminist imagery that placed women at the centre of the narrative.  Since the mid-90s her performances have included endurance, durational and site-specific strategies. Her work is political, satirical and humorous. She has worked both independently and collaboratively to create both large-scale as well as intimate performances. Recent work reflects on our complicity in the world of excess and consumption in the face of economic collapse, as well as the impact of aging on the female body.

She recently retired from teaching at the University of Toronto Scarborough after 25 years and currently lives off-grid in Middle Ohio, N.S. She has one daughter and 3 grandsons. She is looking forward to whatever comes next, post-retirement, post-covid-19.

Toronto’s hottest performance art pop-up shop is GOOD BUY! by Tanya Mars

For 3-days only! Not to be missed! Rare opportunity! Something for everyone! Be the first to own an original Mars! Everything must go!

Q: What do performance artists do when faced with rising rents, rarefied availability, aging and too much stuff?
A: Go out of business! (or)
B: Downsize. Re-purpose. Re-gift. (or)
C: Move to Hamilton.

For three days only, you will have the unique opportunity to see, touch, smell (and buy!) decades of treasures collected in the name of art. One part exhibition of performance materials and one part studio sale. Come and browse the materials, objects, costume bits and other curiosities from Tanya Mars’ personal studio/storage locker. Everything is up for grabs at Toronto’s hottest performance art POP-UP shop, GOOD BUY!

Tanya Mars is a feminist performance artist who has been involved in the Canadian art scene since 1973 and has been collecting valuable stuff all that time, lugging it from Montreal to Toronto to Shelburne, Nova Scotia and back again to Toronto. Disguised as “art materials,” some of these things have been used in performances over the years, other things are performances-in-waiting. 

She’s done a lot of things. Among them: Performances (solo and collaborative) in Canada, the Arctic, Europe, South America, China, Mexico and the USA; director/member of Powerhouse/La Centrale; editor of Parallelogramme/ANNPAC (if anybody remembers what those things are); some videos; collective member of 7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art; two books on Canadian Women Performance Artists with Johanna Householder; teaching performance at NSCAD and UTSC; parent, grandparent, Art Mom to many.

SHOP HOURS & EVENTS

Thursday, May 3, 2018
5:00pm–6:30pm: VIP Preview (by invitation only)
7:00pm: Doors open to the public & opening performance lecture by Tanya Mars
7:30–9:30pm: shopping & refreshments, plus shop tours by official merchandiser, collaborator and Mars’ personal muse, Odette Oliver
ADMISSION: $5 / $2 for students and seniors

Friday, May 4, 2018
12:00pm–9:00pm: shop open
7:00pm: Performance by one of Mars’ long-time collaborators, playwright Paul Ledoux
ADMISSION: free

Saturday, May 5, 2018
12:00pm–6:00pm: shop open
ADMISSION: free

MONOMYTHS is conceived and curated by Shannon Cochrane and Jess Dobkin.
Presented by FADO Performance Art Centre, in association with The Theatre Centre.

MONOMYTHS invites a diverse collection of artists, scholars, and activists to revise Joseph Campbell’s conception of the hero’s journey through performance art, lectures, workshops, and other offerings. This new assemblage of non-linear un-narratives proposes a cultural, political and social feminist re-visioning of the world. The MONOMYTHS perception of the universal journey dispels the notion of the lone patriarchal figure on a conquest to vanquish his demons—both inner and outer—in consideration of community, collectivity, and collaboration.

Stage 14: The Return Home
CRONE by Tanya Mars

CRONE, the latest durational performance by Tanya Mars looks at how superstition and myth intertwine. In keeping with her recent performance strategy, Mars will create an atmospheric work that combines visually rich layers of spectacular, satirical feminist imagery with light and sound. A revered matriarch of the Canadian performance art community, it is fitting that Mars offers the conclusion to the year-long epic MONOMYTHS journey, illuminating Stage 14: The Return Home.

© Tanya Mars, CRONE, 2017. Photo Henry Chan.

From Ironic to Iconic: The Performance Works of Tanya Mars
Edited by Paul Couillard

Design by Sameer Farooq/New Ink
2009, 286 pp. (32-pp. colour section) with index
Includes DVD documentation of Mars’ performance Tyranny of Bliss

With articles by: Paul Couillard, Tagny Duff, Jennifer Fisher, Randy Gledhill, Nelson Henricks, Will Kwan, Paul Ledoux, Joanna Nash, Jennifer Oille, John Oughton and Pam Patterson, Andrew James Paterson, Kim Sawchuk, Dot Tuer

Tanya Mars has been a key figure in Canadian art since she burst on the scene in 1974 with her first groundbreaking exhibition, Codpieces Phallic Paraphernalia. Provocative and political, Mars has relentlessly shown us that the way to the jugular is through the funny bone, creating a series of compelling “three-dimensional pictures” that have made her one of Canada’s most acclaimed and important performance artists. This anthology offers a comprehensive look at her career, including a DVD with photo and video documentation of many of her major works.

“An innovative leader in the performance art scene here and internationally, Tanya Mars makes art that is courageous, humourous, operatic and original. Ironic to Iconic gives the reader a cogent and too little-known background to Mars’ career and her role in the development of performance art in Canada.”
~Jessica Bradley, curator and director of Jessica Bradley Art + Projects

From Iconic to Ironic: The Performance Works of Tanya Mars
Edited by Paul Couillard

Tanya Mars has been a key figure in Canadian art since she burst on the scene in 1974 with her first groundbreaking exhibition, Codpieces: Phallic Paraphernalia. Provocative and political, Mars has relentlessly shown us that the way to the jugular is through the funny bone, creating a series of compelling “three-dimensional pictures” that have made her one of Canada’s most acclaimed and important performance artists. This anthology offers a comprehensive look at her career, including a DVD with photo and video documentation of many of her major works.

“An innovative leader in the performance art scene here and internationally, Tanya Mars makes art that is courageous, humourous, operatic and original. Ironic to Iconic gives the reader a cogent and too little-known background to Mars’ career and her role in the development of performance art in Canada.”
~Jessica Bradley, curator and director of Jessica Bradley Art + Projects

FADO is proud to present Tyranny of Bliss by Tanya Mars. This major new performance by one of Canada’s most renowned performance artists occupies 14 different sites of continuous activity over 7-hours across the city of Toronto, starting at from Queen’s Park Queen’s Park legislative building, and stretching along University Avenue to Queen Street West.

Inspired by a variety of sources ranging from the 14th Century frescoes of Ambrogio Lorenzetti on the Effects of Good and Bad Government to Fellini’s Satyricon, Tanya Mars constructs a modern day social satire with a cast of 30 performers. Tyranny of Bliss looks at the current human condition from both utopian and dystopian perspectives. The piece offers a richly layered, series of spectacular and incongruous images juxtaposed against the outdoor urban landscape.

Loosely based on the pageant structure of the medieval Miracle/Mystery plays, Tyranny of Bliss is a 7-hour performance that uses limousines in lieu of wagons. Beginning from the Queen’s Park legislature, two limousines – one white and one black – will usher small groups of audience members past 14 “tableaux” locations featuring images based on the 7 heavenly virtues and the 7 deadly sins. The scenes will also be accessible to passersby, allowing audiences to create their own narrative by walking from site to site. At each location a different scene will unfold continuously throughout the day, using the languages of dance, theatre, sculpture, visual art and literature.

Tyranny of Bliss promises a thrilling and provocative meditation on city life, providing a unique experience of Toronto not to be missed.

Performance Locations

GREED, LOVE, WISDOM: Queen’s Park grounds, north of the Legislature

COURAGE: travelling south on University Avenue, from Queen’s Park to Queen Street West

HOPE, SLOTH, ENVY: Queen’s Park Legislative grounds

LUST: University Avenue & Gerrard Street

GLUTTONY: University Avenue & Dundas Street West

TOLERANCE University Avenue & Armoury Street

WRATH: University Avenue & Queen Street West

JUSTICE: travelling north along University Avenue, from Queen Street West to Queen’s Park

TRUTH: City Hall Speaker’s Corner, 100 Queen Street West

PRIDE: Pages Books & Magazines, 256 Queen Street West

FADO is proud to present Gestures, an evening of performance works by five emerging artists and recent art school graduates. Curated by Tanya Mars, the evening focuses on concepts of gesture: gesture as movement, gesture as courtesy, gesture as mark. Reflecting a range of strategies and approaches to performance, Gestures introduces a fresh, vibrant, and diverse group of local and regional performance artists to Toronto audiences.

ARTISTS
Adrian Kahgee
Christine Peplinksi
Erika DeFreitas
Julian Fiala
Keith Fernandes

FADO’s on-going Emerging Artists series grew out of this first event, initiated by performance artist and educator Tanya Mars. One event expanded into an on-going series in order to provide a professional platform for emerging artists and curators from Toronto and beyond. Working within a curatorial framework, the series is intended to nurture new work and ideas, as well as provide direction and mentorship. The series is also a vehicle to showcase the work of the community’s newest perspectives in performance art.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Erika DeFreitas’ multidisciplinary practice includes performance, photography, video, installation, textiles, drawing and writing. Placing emphasis on gesture, process, the body, documentation and paranormal phenomena, DeFreitas mines concepts of loss, post-memory, legacy and object-hood. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally.

Keith Fernandes is a fifth year arts management student at the University of Toronto majoring in Drama. His recent credits include an original adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, and an original clown performance entitled The Golden Ball, which was awarded Best Production at the University of Toronto Drama Festival.

Julian Fiala is a feminist artist/activist working predominantly in performance and installation. Over the last two years, Julie has worked with marginally housed communities, women, and Queen’s University janitors to explore themes such as sex and class privilege, as well as notions of public/private space Recent credits include speaking at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre’s Active Practices Symposium and co-curating ARTHappens2, an evening of performances, happenings and events at Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre. Julie currently resides in Kingston, where she has taken a job as Modern Fuel’s Program Director.

Adrian Kahgee is an Anishnaabekwe originally from Saugeen First Nation. She currently resides and teaches in Toronto. As an emerging video and performance artist, Adrian has worked on a number of collaborative projects with other First Nation artists, including Four Red Women Nude a radio/ performance art production aired on CBC radio. She has also been involved with the emerging video artist collective 640 480. Her most recent collaborative work, a documentary titled The Original Summit, Journey to the Sacred Uprising premiered at the 2002 imagineNATIVE Media Arts Festival in Toronto.

Christine Peplinski is a recent graduate of the Fine Arts program at the University of Toronto. She believes that art is better than the truth.

FADO continues its 12-month duration performance art series, TIME TIME TIME, with Toronto’s own Tanya Mars in a new performance entitled HOT.

Tanya Mars is well-known for performance works in which she creates spectacular images that function as living pictures. HOT is a sensitive look at middle age and the persistent desire for intimacy. In an elegant, slowly evolving tableau, Mars considers the search for unconditional love.

As always, humour, absurdity, and a dense overlay of visual metaphors are the essential building blocks of Mars’ complex vision. Forsaking the ‘hot’ sexuality of youth for the ‘hot’ flashes of menopause, Mars offers us the image of a bearded lady, setting thousands of household mousetraps with red cinnamon candy hearts as a video projection of a woman cuddling with a dog suggests where true companionship and uncomplicated bonding might be found. Irony, poignancy and even pragmatism play a role in this meditation on the lessons time has to offer aging baby boomers at the end of the millennium.

Mars notes: “It is ironic that just when a woman reaches intellectual maturity and is in her prime, her level of desirability as a mate plummets. HOT is not about sexuality, but about comfort, companionship and loyalty.”

© Tanya Mars, HOT, TIME TIME TIME series, 2009. Photo Paul Couillard.