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 presentĀ 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 gesturesāwhether or not they utilize spoken wordāconstitute 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?