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FEATURED EVENTS

Chamanika Urbana is a video installation and performance inspired by images of a contemporary shaman taken in Mexico City. In the videographic space, a hand-to-hand ritual with the shaman takes place, while in the exhibition space, marginality and insulation break off while I connect with others in a ritual of community. Through this artwork, the body celebrates life, death and transformation, leading us to think not only about the consequences of globalization on native cultures in Latin America, but as well on syncretism and the place culture and art occupy in contemporary society.

Claudia Bernal has developed a personal approach focused on the fragmentation of urban space and its impact on society and culture. The concepts of movement, migration, space, identity, are recurrent in her artworks. She has presented both collective and solo exhibitions in Canada, Québec, Colombia, Cuba, Argentina, Mexico and Germany. Claudia Bernal lives and works in Montréal.

Reset Button
anti-cool (Japan)

Allurements of Mass Media (2005)

In my country, one can find many people who are afraid of being hurt so they decide to live in virtual reality. For example, there are adult men who are seriously in love with cartoon characters – girls that are still children but have all the curves. Or take the people who are into dating websites. Since it isn’t necessary to give others their personal information, they don’t need real commitment and they can erase their relationships whenever they want. I will discuss these social phenomena with a series of actions in which I attempt to conquer limits and rules that are self produced.

anti-cool’s performances address the acts of people who have a tendency to depend excessively on food, objects, “others,” and mass media. Her performances include NIPAF 2000 performance art festival (Tokyo), Asiatopia at the International Performance Art Festival (Bangkok), EXIT: International Festival for Unusual Live Performance (Helsinki), Echigostumari Art Triennial 2003 (Nigata, Japan), the 4th International Performance Festival Odense (Denmark), and You Are Here Festival (Nottingham, UK).

FRIDAY OCTOBER 27, 2006
Daytime Program, 11:00 am - 6:00 pm
OCAD Professional Gallery (100 McCaul St.)

photo: Paul Couillard

Twenty-five years into the AIDS crisis, political language is failing us, promising cultural initiatives have stalled, and the social imagination is exhausted. But images remain: body, body fluids, trust, betrayal. The unanswered call of the twenty-first century North American faggot is to redefine community in a way that removes the gap between HIV+ and HIV negative.

Ed Johnson is a Toronto-based performance artist whose solo and collaborative performances have been presented at festivals, galleries and artist-run centres in eleven countries at sites such as Artemisia Gallery (Chicago), VAV Gallery (Montréal), and Sophiensaele (Berlin). Focusing on issues of display, his current work addresses shifting sexual politics in the age of AIDS.

Image of Toronto
Herma Auguste Wittstock (Germany)

Sweet for my Sweet ( HAU 1 Berlin, 2005)

photo: Till Steinbrenner

For me it is more and more interesting to play with the places in which I perform. A picture cannot explain a place, I need to stand on the street corner and smell the atmosphere. I see the people on the street and gauge their willingness to interact. Image of Toronto will be a spontaneous performance created in response to the geography and community of Toronto.

Herma Auguste Wittstock lives and works in Berlin, Germany. She is an active member of the Independent Performance Group, a collective curated by Marina Abramovic. Wittstock has presented performances at the Avignon Theatre Festival (France, 2005), PS1 (New York, 2003), the Venice Biennale (Italy, 2003) and the Museum of Modern Art (Dublin, 2001).

photo: Mideo M. Cruz

I work with a loose structure in order to respond more spontaneously to different situations and contexts. This free-form nature allows me to play with an open-ended vision of identity and social relationships. The actions provide an image for contemplation. The processes of making rituals in contemporary ceremony are a search for the discovery of self in society, society in self. Our crises sometimes manifest as madness on the outside, however, there is an attempt to maintain peace within.

Lee Wen’s performances and installations often expose and question the ideologies and value systems of individuals as well as social structures. Born in Singapore, Lee lives and works extensively on a global circuit exhibiting at events such as the Busan Biennale (South Korea, 2004), the 3rd Asia Pacific Triennial (Brisbane, 1999), and the Sexta Bienal de La Habana (Cuba, 1997). In 2003 Lee initiated The Future of Imagination in Singapore, an international forum for the presentation and documentation of performance art. Since 1999 Lee has also worked with Black Market International.

photo: Jess Aznar & Mideo. M. Cruz

This lamentation of a multi-breasted creature is a contemporary rendition of
Mebuyan, an ancient Filipino myth of the Bagobo tribe. Mebuyan is the nurturer of the village. In contemporary times it may mean the need to sacrifice in order for the community to continue to exist, or perhaps the motherland providing sustenance to her people. The accompanying melody, Tula ni Oryang, is a kundiman song taken from a poem of Gregoria “Oryang” de Jesus, the widow of Andres Bonifacio, a Filipino hero from the later period of Spanish colonization. Even without understanding the lyrics, the sense the grief is compelling.

Racquel de Loyola’s work addresses the issues of women, colonization, identity, migration, displacement, capitalism and globalization. Loyola is currently a convener of the New World Disorder. She has recently presented performances at the Currency Festival of Performance (New York, 2005), the 7th ASIATOPIA (Bangkok, 2005), Asia Meet Asia (Tokyo, 2006), and the Laokoon Art Festival (Germany, 2004).

SATURDAY OCTOBER 28, 2006
Daytime Program, 11:00 am - 6:00 pm
OCAD Professional Gallery (100 McCaul St.)

Image of Toronto
Herma Auguste Wittstock (Germany)

The Furniture and the Literature
Dariusz Fodczuk (Poland)

Untitled
Willem Wilhelmus (Finland)

Forum

photo: Klaus Welp

In this world of enlightened heroes like politicians, sportsmen, terrorists, businessmen, gurus, famous artists and whatever trademarked darlings of global media, I like the small places offered for performance art. I like to be busy with themes that are recognizable for everybody: the joys and fear of relating, the longing for and shying away from contact, the getting entangled in a swamp of emotions, desperately trying, getting lost in futile attempts for importance, the illusion of certainty. My performances are based on trust in my body. I like its movements, its expressions, and most of all its downright honesty. Preparing for a performance is stripping away all kinds of illusion. The leftover is a need to add something, something else, something new to what life is offering me.

Willem Wilhelmus is an internationally renowned Helsinki-based performance artist and organizer. He has created over forty performances in Finland, Germany, Estonia, Québec, Indonesia, Sweden and Spain. He began his career as a youth social worker and group therapist focusing on body awareness and emotional expression. In Berlin he co-founded the Path Center, and was the project leader of Al Gardo, a therapeutic community for Dutch youth. His work uses simple materials and focused presence, and for 7a*11d he will investigate the differences between Canada and Finland, and between English- and French-speaking Canada.

SUNDAY OCTOBER 29, 2006
PANEL DISCUSSION, 2:00 - 4:00 pm
XPACE (303 Augusta Ave.)