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Exibitions 2019

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Index of artists, authors and curators

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OPTICA Fonds (Concordia University Archives)

Guidebooks to help in consulting the archives

Electronic Reproduction Fees




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Juan Ortiz-Apuy, La Guaria Morada, 2016. Humidificateur industriel, déshumidificateurs,
peinture Skylla, orchidées Guaria Morada (aka la fleur nationale du Costa Rica), éclairage et système de chauffage, dimensions variables | Industrial mist humidifier, dehumidifiers, Skylla paint, Guaria Morada Orchids (aka the national flower of Costa Rica), lighting and heating systems, variable size.
Crédit | Credit: Paul Litherland.


Juan Ortiz-Apuy
From January 19th 2019 to March 16th 2019
La Guaria Morada

Opening, Saturday, January 19, 2019 - 3PM to 6PM
Saturday with the Family: January 26 and March 16, 2019.
“Ortiz-Apuy’s installation is certainly a gesture to the invisible forms of labour and care that drive artist-run spaces: moving like cycles of evaporated water, infinitely extracted and re-released in the air.” Sanader, Daniella. “Room Temperature.” Canadian Art, Fall 2018, p. 144-145.

In La Guaria Morada, tropical orchids, an industrial humidifier, dehumidifiers and sky-blue paint are assembled to form an artificial environment in a perpetual state of negotiation and precarity. Dependent on the gallery’s lighting, heating system and staff to sustain them, the orchids parallel not only the art object—maintained via mechanisms that aim to foster and nourish artistic practice—but artist-run centres as well, equally requiring perpetual effort and negotiation in order to survive.

Like a Sisyphean trope of absurdity and repetition, the installation functions as a metaphor for situations caught in similarly uncertain conditions. Centred around the national flower of Costa Rica, Juan Ortiz-Apuy regards this work as an homage to his country of origin. La Guaria Morada is a fragile ecosystem. Like Costa Rica, and more generally the developing countries of the region, the orchids are caught in the push and pull of forces in a cyclical struggle to develop. The humidifier and the dehumidifiers are literally those forces pushing and impeding the orchids in their efforts to bloom, forces that are metaphorically as much about economics as they are about foreign influence, corruption, and control.

Juan Ortiz-Apuy

Launch at OPTICA of the magazine ESPACE art actuel n° 121 (winter 2019)
"Animal Point of View".
(under the direction of Bénédicte Ramade).
Saturday, January 19, 2019 - 3PM to 6PM.
Available at OPTICA, 11$

Guided tour by the artist
March 2, 2019 from 8 PM to 10 PM (eng, fr, spa)

PRESS RELEASE (pdf)


REVUE DE PRESSE

DELGADO, Jérôme. «Nature, urbanité et autres lieux à revoir», Le Devoir, January 12, 2019.



Juan Ortiz-Apuy has lived and worked in Montreal since 2003. He hold a BFA from Concordia University (2008), a Post-Graduate Diploma from The Glasgow School of Art (2009), and an MFA from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University (2011).
His work has been exhibited across Canada and internationally in venues such as les Abattoirs Museum - Frac Occitanie Toulouse (France), IKEA Museum (Sweden), Carleton University Art Gallery (Ottawa), Owens Art Gallery (Sackville), Truck Contemporary Art (Calgary), Museum London (London), Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography (Toronto), The MacLaren Arts Centre (Barrie), and the Quebec City Biennial: Manif d'art 7 (Quebec).




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Léa Moison, 25/09 = 1 (partition) 1/5, 2018. Graphite sur papier. 104,14 x 175,26 cm. | Graphite on paper. 104,14 x 175,26 cm. variable size. Crédit | Credit: Paul Litherland.


Léa Moison
From January 19th 2019 to March 16th 2019
25/09=1

Opening, Saturday, January 19, 2019 - 3PM to 6PM
In her exhibition, 25/09=1, Léa Moison presents a series of drawings and a paper-based sculpture made from systems and their protocols that attempt to translated sound into two and three dimensions. Combining visual and media arts with a strong musical culture, the artist is developing a practice based on a compositional mode that plays on the passage from sound to the visual. Each work issues from a translation of data from a series of relays from one discipline to another, following a well-defined system of equivalencies: music thus becomes a score, which becomes a drawing, which becomes an object that becomes music, and so on.

Mounted on white paper, the visual notations do not refer to musical theory and do not reveal music to be played: sound is absent and freed of correspondences of cause and effect. A volume, deploying a bare frequency, also transposes a sound into space as inspired by Iannis Xenakis who, in some projects, combined electronic music with architecture. The method Moison employs involves a certain degree of freedom in production reminiscent of John Cage’s philosophy of indetermination. Cage himself described the elements of his compositions in terms of method and structure. Indeed, as with Cage, the process with Moison takes precedence over action and the artist’s subjective touch, while the outcome leaves room for a degree of unpredictability. The reproduction of the raw material—the objective data derived from the structure of a score or of a sculpture—results in the constitution of independent objects that extend the formal possibilities indefinitely.

The exhibition space circumscribes an aerial universe, nearly non-existent and unreal, a dreamlike atmosphere where time has stopped.

Author: Esther Bourdages

Esther Bourdages works in the visual arts and technology art field as a writer, independent curator and scholar. Her curatorial research explores art forms such as site-specific art, installation and sculpture, often in conjunction with sound.

PRESS RELEASE (pdf)


PRESS REVIEW

BEHA, Claire-Marine. «Les (nombreuses) expositions à voir en février à Montréal», Le Baron, January 31, 2019.



With an MFA in visual and media arts from UQAM and a degree in psychology, Léa Moison lives and works in Montreal. After her studies in music and Fine Arts in Lorient, Moison decided to explore the link between the arts and to combine music, drawing, and sculpture in one space. She also works with youth in creative workshops and devises projects through which she hopes to enable young people to develop their own visual language.




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Juan Ortiz-Apuy, La Guaria Morada, 2016.
Crédit | Credit: Paul Litherland.

Les Samedis ensemble en familles | Los Sabados juntos en familia en español y portugués |
Saturdays with the Family
From January 26th 2019 to March 16th 2019
La magie des orchidées! Autour de l'œuvre de Juan Ortiz-Apuy

En un ambiente tropical, los asistentes serán invitados a explorar las diferentes especies de orquídeas, a identificar sus particularidades y a reflexionar sobre el concepto de ecosistema, gracias a un taller de creación con las dos mediadoras culturales. Podrán fabricar sus propias flores a partir de diferentes papeles, inspirándose en orquídeas de diversos orígenes. Al familiarizarse con las diferentes especies existentes, sus hábitats naturales y artificiales, los participantes serán instados a establecer una relación con las nociones de biodiversidad y de ecosistema, a reconocer su importancia para el medio ambiente y la necesidad de preservarlos para nuestro futuro.

Informaciones prácticas
16 de marzo de 2019
1 PM a 4 PM
Gratis | Sin reserva Niños de 4 años en adelante
Duración : 1 h15 min

NUEVO : también disponible en español y portugués


In in a tropical atmosphere, visitors will be invited to explore the different species of orchids, identify their particularities and think about the concept of ecosystem through a creative workshop with the cultural mediator. They will make their own flowers from different papers inspired by orchids of various origins. The participants will be asked to make a correlation with the notions of biodiversity and ecosystem, to recognize their importance for the environment and the need to preserve them for our future.

Practical Information
January 26, 2019
March 16, 2019
1 PM to 4 PM

The workshop is open to the whole family and will run continually. Feel free to join in at any time.
Free | No reservation required
For children aged 4 and older
Duration: up to 1 hour and 15 min.

NEW: also offered in Spanish and Portuguese

art3



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Couverture du livre The Players,
Graphisme | Cover of the book The Players,
Graphic Design: Jeff Kulak.

Zoë Chan_The Players
From January 31st 2019 to March 2nd 2019
Nouvelle publication indépendante disponible à OPTICA.

The MAI presents currently Le je et le nous / The I and the We under the curatorship of Zoë Chan with this line-up of artists: Tonia Di Risio, Kirsten Leenaars, Caroline Monnet, Alana Riley, Karen Tam, Arnait Video Productions + Shirley Bruno.

In parallel Chan launches a publication that documents a cycle of exhibitions, including Performing Lives presented to OPTICA in 2018. Available at OPTICA.

100 p, ill. col. 12,8 x 20,5 cm
Texts: Zoë Chan, Cheryl Sim
Graphic Design: Jeff Kulak
200 copies
ISBN 978-0-9939943-1-9
[$20]




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Pavitra Wickramasinghe, Studio Experiment, 2013. Photographie numérique, dimension variable.
Avec l’aimable permission de l’artiste. | Digital photography, variable size. Courtesy of the artist.

Théâtre d’ombres avec Pavitra Wickramansinghe | Shadows theater with Pavitra Wickramansinghe
From February 1st 2019 to April 30th 2019
NOUVEAU ! Projet satellite avec les tout-petits de La Sourithèque

La Sourithèque day-care centre, Centre-Sud district
Spring 2019

This satellite project—off OPTICA’s premises—is jointly produced with artist Pavitra Wickramnasinghe. Children from the La Sourithèque will help create a collective kinetic work, a fantastical shadow play temporarily set up in their own environment. The project is an invitation to a journey, an encounter with the other, and aims to help kids discover their friends’ cultures.

Théâtre d’ombres receives support from the Foundation of Greater Montreal as part of the 2018 Community Initiatives program, which follows the United Nations’ sustainable development objectives.

www.souritheque.com

OPTICA's educational program is supported by the Foundation of Greater Montreal, Community Initiatives Program 2018, and the Caisse Populaire Desjardins du Plateau-Mont-Royal.




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Juan Ortiz-Apuy, La Guaria Morada, 2016. Humidificateur industriel, déshumidificateurs, peinture Skylla, orchidées Guaria Morada (aka la fleur nationale du Costa Rica), éclairage et système de chauffage, dimensions variables | Industrial mist humidifier, dehumidifiers, Skylla paint, Guaria Morada Orchids (aka the national flower of Costa Rica), lighting and heating systems, variable size. Crédit | Credit: Paul Litherland.

Juan Ortiz-Apuy
From March 2nd 2019 to March 3rd 2019
Nuit Blanche : La magie des orchidées! avec Juan Ortiz-Apuy

Aunado a la exposición La Guaria Morada de Juan Ortiz-Apuy, presentada en OPTICA del 19 enero al 16 de marzo 2019, el evento « La magie des orchidées » le brinda a los jóvenes visitantes y a sus familias la oportunidad de descubrir la instalación en presencia del artista y de las mediadoras culturales del centro.

Visita comentada por el artista en español a las 20h Y en inglés a las 22h

La exposición La Guaria Morada de Juan Ortiz-Apuyintroduce orquídeas tropicales, un humificador industrial ultrasónico y deshumificadores con el fin de crear un ambiente artificial en un estado de negociación y de precariedad perpetua. Dicha instalación, cuyo verdadero ecosistema frágil se centra alrededor de la flor nacional de Costa Rica, hace referencia al país natal del artista y remite a las situaciones dadas en condiciones tan inciertas y vulnerables. Dependiendo de la iluminación de la galería y del personal necesario para su mantenimiento, las orquídeas se asemejan al objeto de arte, mantenidas por sistemas destinados para favorecer y nutrir la práctica artística.

Además de poder beneficiar de la presencia del artista en la galería de 19h a 22h en un ambiente tropical, los asistentes serán invitados a explorar las diferentes especies de orquídeas, a identificar sus particularidades y a reflexionar sobre el concepto de ecosistema, gracias a un taller de creación con las dos mediadoras culturales. Podrán fabricar sus propias flores a partir de diferentes papeles, inspirándose en orquídeas de diversos orígenes.

Al familiarizarse con las diferentes especies existentes, sus hábitats naturales y artificiales, los participantes serán instados a establecer una relación con las nociones de biodiversidad y de ecosistema, a reconocer su importancia para el medio ambiente y la necesidad de preservarlos para nuestro futuro. El taller se llevará a cabo de manera continua hasta 1 AM. Se les servirán jugos y frutas a los noctámbulos. Esta actividad está particularmente destinada a un público joven y a sus familias, pero podrá ser adoptada a todas las edades.


Part of the exhibition "La Guaria Morada" by Juan Ortiz-Apuy, presented at OPTICA from January 19 to March 16, 2019, the event "The magic of orchids" offers to young visitors and their families the opportunity to discover the installation in the presence of the artist and the cultural mediators of the center.

Visit commented by the artist in Spanish at 8 pm and in English at 10pm.

Juan Ortiz-Apuy’s exhibition La Guaria Morada uses tropical orchids, dehumidifiers, and an ultrasound industrial humidifier to create an artificial environment in a constant state of negotiation and precariousness. Centred on Costa Rica’s national flower, the installation—a truly fragile ecosystem—refers to the artist’s home country and to situations caught in conditions as uncertain as they are vulnerable. Dependent on gallery lighting and the staff required for its maintenance, the orchids are like art objects, which are maintained by systems that favour and sustain artistic practices.

In addition to enjoying the presence of the artist in gallery from 19h to 22h in a tropical atmosphere, visitors will be invited to explore the different species of orchids, identify their particularities and think about the concept of ecosystem through a creative workshop with the cultural mediator. They will make their own flowers from different papers inspired by orchids of various origins. The participants will be asked to make a correlation with the notions of biodiversity and ecosystem, to recognize their importance for the environment and the need to preserve them for our future.

The workshop will run continuously until 1AM. Juice and fruit will be served to night owls. This activity is particularly aimed at young people and their families, but can be adapted to all ages.

nuitblanche



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Atelier à la Sourithèque avec Pavitra Wickramasinghe,
février 2019.
Crédit photo : Tanha Gomes


Pavitra Wickramasinghe et les souriceaux
From March 14th 2019 to May 17th 2019
Exposition jeunesse_à La Sourithèque

souritheque
OPTICA + La Sourithèque

Théâtre d’ombres
with Pavitra Wickramasinghe
et les souriceaux

Poster of the project, high resolution (pdf)

Arthur Nadon
Daphné Marois
David Anthony Adejor
Elsa Malenfant
Ibsan Chowdhury
Maxence Ledoyen
Phillipe Poitras-Jean
Roméo Roy
Victor Begin
Sam-Yan Bradette Dutremble

Opening at La Sourithèque
March 14, 2019
5PM – 6PM
Parents and friends are welcome!

Following a series of workshops with artist Pavitra Wickramasinghe, the souriceaux performed a collective kinetic work, a fantastical shadow play temporarily set up in their own environment at La Sourithèque.

Come discover their artworks: an invitation to travel and to meet each other!

Exhibition Théâtre d’ombres
From March 14 to May 17, 2019
Monday to Friday
7AM – 6PM

La Sourithèque
CPE La Sourithèque's mission is to provide a stimulating living environment for children in the Center-Sud neighborhood, while ensuring their health, safety, and full development and well-being.
Théâtre d’ombres is OPTICA's first youth exhibition in a daycare centre.

In partnership with
La Sourithèque
Geneviève Courcy – Director
Linda Lambert - Educator

Théâtre d’ombres receives support from the Foundation of Greater Montreal as part of the 2018 Community Initiatives Program, which follows the United Nation’s sustainable development objectives.

OPTICA receives support from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, and the Conseil des arts de Montréal. The educational program is supported by the Foundation of Greater Montreal, Community Initiatives Program 2018, and the Caisse Populaire Desjardins du Plateau-Mont-Royal.

La Sourithèque
1750 Saint-André street
Montréal Québec H2L 3T8
www.souritheque.com



fondationdugrandmontréal


Pavitra Wickramasinghe is interested in new ways of conceptualizing the moving image and in the conventions of seeing. Her current work is an exploration of notions of travel, the fluidity of place, and memory. She uses light and shadows as extensions of the projected image to create installations where the viewer occupies filmic space within the work instead of viewing it from the outside.

She is a recipient of numerous residencies, awards and grants including UNESCO-Aschberg Bursaries Programme for Artists, Changdong Art Studio, National Museum of Contemporary Art (South Korea), Canada Council for the Arts and The Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Fellowship in Contemporary Art. She has exhibited in Asia, Canada and Europe.

www.pavitraw.com




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Avec / With Sophie Bélair Clément, Rebecca Belmore, Olivia Boudreau, Marie-Claude Bouthillier, Marie-Ève Charron, Sorel Cohen, Raphaëlle de Groot, Philippe Dumaine, Vera Frenkel, Andrea Geyer, Cynthia Girard-Renard, Clara Gutsche, Rashid Johnson, Marie-Josée Lafortune, Suzy Lake, arkadi lavoie lachapelle, Maryse Larivière, Emmanuelle Léonard, Deirdre Logue, Allyson Mitchell, Wanda Nanibush, Abdi Osman, Camal Pirbhai, Claire Savoie, Johanne Sloan, Jana Sterbak, Thérèse St-Gelais, Camille Turner, Rinaldo Walcott, Giovanna Zapperi.
From March 15th 2019 to March 23rd 2019
Lancée à Montréal et à Toronto, récente parution : ARCHI-FÉMINISTES!

NEW PUBLICATION
ARCHI-FÉMINISTES!
Contemporary Art, Feminist Theories
Montreal and Toronto book launches

March, 15, 2019
6 PM – 8 PM
L’Euguélionne, librairie féministe

1426 Beaudry street
Montreal, QC H2L 3E5

March, 23, 2019
3 PM – 5 PM
Critical Distance Centre for Curators
No. 302 — Artscape Youngplace
180 Shaw Street
Toronto, ONT M6J 2W5

Publisher
OPTICA, centre d’art contemporain
Edited by
Marie-Ève Charron, Marie-Josée Lafortune, Thérèse St-Gelais

Paperback
15,8 x 23,18 cm
160 pages / ill
Text FR + EN
ISBN 978-2-922085-15-0
[$35]
Launch Price: $30
To order online:
distribution@optica.ca

Bringing together an important body of work produced between 1970 and the present, this publication analyzes historical and current issues of feminisms by proposing crossed perspectives on the field of art history and its oft-interrogated construction. Feminist manifestations are examined in light of practices that persist in their resistance and that compel us to reexamine social norms through activism, citizen mobilization, and sharing communities. Striving to bring new insights to our attention, these contributions take up theoretical feminist models, but also reference cultural, decolonization, and queer studies.

Archi-féministes! is the title of the eponymous exhibition presented by contemporary art centre OPTICA in 2011 and 2012, which highlighted the contributions of female artists to its history and to the network of Canadian artist-run centres.

L’Euguélionne is a feminist bookstore and non-profit solidarity co-op in Montreal, also known as Tiohtià:ké, on unceded Mohawk and Algonquin territory. We offer a large selection of new and used books, zines and print art. The bookstore specializes in women’s literature (fiction, poetry, comic books, essays, young adult fiction and children’s books) and feminist, queer, lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex, asexual and non-binary, two-spirited, anti-racist, anti-colonial works, etc. We also host diverse literary feminist events including launches, reading circles, talks, workshops and round table discussions. www.librairieleuguelionne.com

Critical Distance is a not-for-profit project space, publisher, and professional association devoted to the support and advancement of curatorial practice and inquiry in Toronto, Canada, and beyond. With a focus on critically engaged, collaborative, and cross-disciplinary practices, underrepresented artists and art forms, and community outreach and education in art and exhibition-making, Critical Distance is an open platform for diverse curatorial perspectives, and a forum for the exchange of ideas on curating and exhibition-making as ways to engage and inform audiences from all walks of life. www.criticaldistance.ca

CDCC is located at Artscape Youngplace, a wheelchair accessible building with a ramp at the 180 Shaw Street doors, an elevator servicing every floor, and an accessible washroom on every level. The TTC’s 63 Ossington bus stops nearby and is wheelchair accessible.

PRESS REVIEW

Valentin Gleyze, « Archi-féministes ! Art contemporain, théories féministes », Critique d’art [Online], Connection on 18 December 18, 2019. http://journals.openedition.org/critiquedart/54029

« Book Reviews, New and Noteworthy », Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art, Issue No. 40, November 2019, p. 106.

DULUDE, Sébastien. « Précis de féminismes », Le Sabord, Issue No. 114, «ancrages», October 2019, p. 57-58.

LEGENDRE, Eric. « Archi-féministes! Art contemporain, théories féministes / Contemporary Art, Feminist Theories », Espace art actuel, Issue No. 123, fall 2019, p. 105.

MORRISON, Eva. Archi-Féministes! Publication Review, Yiaramagazine, May 21, 2019.


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Adam Basanta, A Large Inscription, 2018.
Installation, médium mixte, microphone, amplificateurs, gravier, métal, moteur, pièces électroniques, dimensions variables. | Mixed media installation, microphone, microphone stand, amplifiers, gravel, steel, motor, electronics, variable size. Avec l'aimable permission de l'artiste | Courtesy of the artist. Crédit photo | Photo Credit: Emily Gan.

Adam Basanta
From April 13th 2019 to June 15th 2019
A Large Inscription / A Great Noise

Opening, Saturday, April 13, 2019 - 3PM to 6PM
Family Saturdays: May 4 and June 15, 2019.
The philosopher Edmund Husserl spoke of two basic modalities of time, fixed and flowing, and turned to melody to illustrate their knitting-together. For him, the experience of unified time involved retaining the immediately preceding—what just happened—in such a way as to anticipate what was yet to come. It is on these terms that Adam Basanta’s latest works invite us to contemplate an impasse in our time-consciousness.

What happens to time’s succession, and our self-awareness as lived through it, once we find ourselves totally habituated to coordinated universal time? What happens when, in spite of cultural differences that variegate time’s experience, we objectify our lives so thoroughly as to be paralyzed from imagining any shared anticipation of the future? Updating Husserl, the philosopher Bernard Stiegler diagnoses the problem as one of hypersynchronization. As all of us punctuate our days with constant injunctions to communicate, to ‘have our say’ no matter how mundane, Basanta’s pieces index a fraught moment in our modern relationship to time, even as they evoke certain ancient pathologies around time’s accomplishment.

Exiting city streets caught up in a seemingly never-ending cycle of destruction and reconstruction, we come upon their elementary machine choreographies. We see the futility of Sisyphus, as a microphone is cyclically dragged over gravel, experiencing its amplification through the indifferent temporal encounter of non-living matter. We hear the Golem of CheÅ‚m at work in an encased, pile-driving microphone, its assemblage fruitlessly but efficiently performing whatever difference between noise and sound. Taken together, we may also see these gestures less as mutually-ensnared loops than resonant or vibratory structures, suggesting something more opportune: the passage of time as movement. As Husserl insisted in his schema, “...when the concrete present is at an end, a concrete, flowing retentional past must be joined on.”

Neal Thomas

Neal Thomas is a media studies scholar, living and instructing in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. His first book, Becoming-Social in a Networked Age, was published with Routledge in 2018.

Public conversation at OPTICA,
Saturday, May 25th, 3 pm to 4:30 pm between Adam Basanta and Eli Kerr.

PRESS RELEASE (pdf)



Adam Basanta’s work explores technological practices as performances distributed throughout a variety of human, cultural, material and computational agencies. His work has been exhibited worldwide, including at Fotomuseum Winterthur (CH), Arsenal Art Contemporain (CAN), National Art Centre Tokyo (JPN), and the V Moscow Biennale for Young Art (RUS).


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Jo-Anne Balcaen, David Zwirner, Tuesday, January 13, 2015, 5:24 pm, 2015-2019.
Impression jet d'encre sur polypropylène, 106,7 x 157,5 cm. | Inkjet print on polypropylene, 106,7 x 157,5 cm cm. Avec l'aimable permission de l'artiste | Courtesy of the artist

Jo-Anne Balcaen
From April 13th 2019 to June 15th 2019
Dynamique interne/ Internal Dynamics

Opening, Saturday, April 13, 2019 - 3PM to 6PM
Family Saturdays: May 4 and June 15, 2019.
Internal Dynamics, an installation of photographs with soundtrack by Jo-Anne Balcaen, is the latest iteration of works that delve into the psychic experience of artists who grapple with what Bourdieu called the inverted economy, where artists don’t make work to earn a living but earn a living in order to make work. Conditioned by years of experience as a former exhibition coordinator, Balcaen’s candid perspective on the art world results from the artist’s own ambiguous position within the field as both an insider and an outsider and the effect this condition has on her psyche as she strives for self-actualization.

Distilled from dozens of pictures surreptitiously taken while visiting the internationally renowned galleries of New York’s Chelsea district, the large, lush architectural portraits seemingly bring the galleries’ private spaces within reach, while photos of the barriers used to limit access reinforce the feeling of distance. In contrast, others document the more humanizing details that reside in the shadow of the white cube’s persistent aura: dirt, storage, cluttered desks. The large-scale gallery images fit seamlessly into OPTICA’s gallery space, leaving one to wonder about the elusive reputational metrics that determine the spectacular gap that exists between high-end galleries and artist-run centres, and the artists who make it and those who don’t.

Overhead, a soundtrack plays an inner dialogue that will strike a chord with those who share a similar experience as artists and cultural workers nesting multiple roles within the art world, not only to survive, but to thrive, as singular subjects with agency over their destiny despite limited opportunities and bouts of crippling doubt. Balcaen’s white cube is a generative site of existential enquiry, offering opportunities she continues to respond to, at her pace, and for our experience.

Anne Bertrand

Anne Bertrand was involved at Skol, a Montréal based artist-run centre, from 2005 to 2012 and is currently the Executive Director of ARCA, a national advocacy organization that federates the nine artist-run associations from Québec and Canada.

PRESS RELEASE (pdf)

PRESS REVIEW

JANZEN, Edwin (2019). « Jo-Anne Balcaen, Any Gallery, Anywhere », Espace art actuel. no. 123, Fall, pp. 93-95.

ALLARD, Benjamin J. Interview with the artist Jo-Anne Balcaen about the exhibition "Internal Dynamics" presented at OPTICA, un centre d'art contemporain, Le Retour, Radio CIBL 101.5 FM, June 10, 2019.

MAVRIKAKIS, Nicolas. «Dynamique interne: le cube blanc renversé», Le Devoir, April 20th and 21st, 2019.



Jo-Anne Balcaen is a Montreal-based artist who has worked in video, installation, sculpture, and photography. Her work, which has drawn on references as diverse as popular music and the inner workings of the art world, has been presented throughout Canada, in the US and in Europe. She holds a BFA from the University of Manitoba, and an MFA from Concordia University.


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Adam Basanta, A Great Noise, 2019. Installation, médium mixte, microphones, amplificateur, ciment, câble, métal, moteur, pièces électroniques, dimensions variables | Mixed media installation, microphones, amplifier, cement, cable, steel, motor, electronic pieces, variable size. Crédit photo | Photo Credit: Paul Litherland.

Adam Basanta, Eli Kerr
From May 25th 2019 to May 25th 2019
Discussion publique à OPTICA, samedi le 25 mai 2019 - 15h à 16h30

Part of his solo exhibition at OPTICA, A Large Inscription / A Great Noise, Adam Basanta meet with Eli Kerr in the form of a public conversation.

Eli Kerr is a curator and writer based in Montréal. In 2016 Kerr co-founded VIE D’ANGE with Daphné Boxer. The project exists as a broad framework for curatorial activities which both emanate from, and extend beyond an old auto body garage, that serves more as an apparatus than a site for their initiatives. With a focus on supporting new, intimate and experimental artist’s projects, their exhibition programme exists as an episodic series of sequential, yet nonlinear narratives. Kerr has been awarded curatorial residencies at International Studio and Curatorial Program, New York (2017) and at Rupert, Vilnius, Lithuania (2018). He is the recipient of the 2019 Hnatyshyn Foundation Award for Canadian curators under 30 and will be in residence at Fogo Islands Arts, Newfoundland, Canada, this fall.

Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/430930737709565/




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Image trouvée | Found image

Les Samedis ensemble en familles |
Saturdays with the Family
From June 15th 2019 to June 15th 2019
Autour des œuvres de Jo-Anne Balcaen, Adam Basanta!

Oyé young sailor!


OPTICA invites you to live a great adventure with the two cultural pirates of the center. Together, we will go to discover the exhibitions of Adam Basanta and Jo-Anne Balcaen. We will sail on the great sea of contemporary art and confirm a well kept secret. In order to find the treasure, you will have to complete the ultimate test of making your own seal.

Practical Information
May 4, 2019
June 15, 2019
1 PM to 4 PM

The workshop is open to the whole family and will run continually. Feel free to join in at any time.
Free | No reservation required
For children aged 4 and older
Duration: up to 1 hour and 15 min.

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Programme éducatif public 2019-2020, détail.
Graphisme : Tamzyn Berman, Pastille rose. | Public Education Program 2019-2020,
detail. Graphic design:
Tamzyn Berman, Pastille rose.

Programme éducatif public | Public Educational Program | 2019- 2020
From September 7th 2019 to July 13th 2020

OPTICA aims to be a site of proximity, discovery and experimentation in contemporary art for all audiences. We offer educational activities to childcare centres (CPE), primary and secondary schools, CEGEPs and universities as well as families and community groups.

To book an activity or to get more information on our educational programming, contact Sandrine Côté: mediation@optica.ca

CONSULTATION OF THE ANNUAL PROGRAMMATION_PUBLIC EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM_PDF (pdf)

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SATURDAYS WITH THE FAMILY
Free and open to all
For children aged 4 and older
The workshop is open to the whole family and will run continually+


-->MOMENTA | Biennale de l’image
The Life of Things, organized by curator María Wills Londoño in collaboration with Audrey Genois and Maude Johnson.

The Forgetten Stories of Objects!

Workshop around the work of Batia Suter
As part of MOMENTA | Biennale de l’image, OPTICA is presenting the work of artist Batia Suter: she collects, accumulates and classifies images she finds in photo albums, world atlases, illustrated encyclopedias, art and history books, animal magazines, and much more.
With family or friends, OPTICA invites you to play the artist's game during a creative workshop on image transfer. Come, in turn, to assemble, disassemble, arrange, disturb, rearrange and combine the images until a sensible imagination emerges from this chaos of found images.

September 14, 2019 - 1 pm to 4 pm
September 28, 2019 - 1 pm to 3 pm – Part of Journées de la culture
October 19, 2019 - 1 pm to 4 pm

-->Silent Dinner

Family Diner, Around the work of Shannon Cochrane

Following their visit, the young people will take part in a workshop inspired by month-long residency of Shannon Cochrane (Toronto) at OPTICA during which a series of performances will be presented with Deaf and hearing groups.

December 14, 20197 - 1 pm to 4 pm

-->Curatorship of Nuria Carton de Grammont: Un, dos, tres por mi y mis compañeras

On Your Mark, Get Set, Create!

Around the art works of seven women artists practices pioneers of Latin American performance.
January 25, 2020 - 1 pm to 4 pm
March 14, 2020 - 1 pm to 4 pm

-->Scott Benesiinaabandan : Carte blanche

Out Loud

Following their visit, the young people will take part in a workshop inspired by the works of Scott Benesiinaabandanpresented presented at OPTICA.

April 18, 2020 - 1 pm to 4 pm
June 13, 2020 - 1 pm to 4 pm

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CONTEMPORARY LABS, MONDAYS
DAYCARE CENTRES AND PRE-SCHOOL

Creative workshops and interactive tours
Duration: up to 1 hour and 15 min. (visit 30 min. + creative workshop 45 min.)
Contemporary Labs, Mondays
Free and by reservation only


In a friendly atmosphere, the littlest ones become acquainted with contemporary art by by learning to interact with the artwork and to share their observations in a group, the centre’s educator. They are then asked to create a work, often collectively, as a continuation of the reflection begun with the visit. This approach enables them to better understand and appropriate the artist’s creative process. Since 2015, we have welcomed more than 400 children to our gallery.

-->Around the work of Batia Suter
September 16, 23, and 30, 2019
October 7, 2019

-->

Around the performative work of Shannon Cochrane
November 18 and 25, 2019
December 2 and 9, 2019





 -->Around the work of the exhibition Un, dos, tres por mi y mis compañeras, curatorship of Nuria Carton de Grammont
January 27, 2020
February 3, 10, 17 and 24, 2020
March 2 and 9, 2020

-->Around the work of Scott Benesiinaabandan
April 16, 23 and 30, 2020
May 4, 11, 18 and 25, 2020
June 1 and 8, 2020

Special Interactive Tours – New!
For Elementary and High School Students (7-16 years)
Welcoming School Groups
For elementary and high school welcome classes, we provide an illustrated activities notebook during exhibition tours at the centre. The activities, adapted to this clientele, offer a different experience for learning French. During their visit, youngsters are encouraged to express themselves and to articulate their observations upon contact with the works in an atmosphere that promotes discovery and exploration.
Special Education Groups
Particular attention is given to the needs of special education students having learning difficulties, or suffering from autism spectrum disorder or a hearing impairment. These groups have the benefit of distinct activities and visual resources to accompany them in their artistic discoveries.



COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY GROUPS
Visites interactives et rencontres
Free and by reservation only 



Guided tours of current exhibitions are offered to college and university students. On request, we can organize discussions or round tables on various themes such as OPTICA's mission, the mandate of artist-run center or any other subject related to the current art. These meetings take place in the AGORA space of OPTICA.





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Miguel Angel Ríos, The Ghost of Modernity (Lixiviados), 2012, image tirée de la vidéo (détail) couleur, son, 5 min 4 s | video still (detail), colour, sound, 5 min. 4 sec.
© Miguel Angel Ríos.


Miguel Angel Ríos
From September 7th 2019 to October 19th 2019
MOMENTA x OPTICA Miguel Angel Ríos : La géopoétique des choses

Opening_ Friday, September 6, 2019 - 5PM to midnight
Family Saturdays: September 14 and October 19, 2019.

MOMENTA | Biennale de l’image is proud to present its 16th edition, The Life of Things, organized by curator María Wills Londoño in collaboration with Audrey Genois and Maude Johnson. The biennale joins forces with OPTICA for the exhibition Miguel Angel Ríos: The Geopoetics of Things.

Miguel Angel Ríos makes works about the symbolic figure of “Latin America". Exploring the metaphorical possibilities of objects, he focuses on representing the dynamics of territoriality and displacement through them. In the videos The Ghost of Modernity (Lixiviados) and Piedras Blancas, Ríos presents two works that probe the object’s transmissive power. Combining geometry and geography, they problematize modes of representation and contexts of migration by means of objects choreographically activated in the landscape. The videos reveal the profound disorder of a culture in which social, political, and economic crises follow each other with such intensity that chaos becomes normalized. Ríos asserts the need to be politicized, through a formal minimalism, giving substance to a “geopoetica" of things.

Momenta Time
Guided Tours of the exhibitions at OPTICA
No Booking Required
Saturday, September 14, 2019, 3:30 pm to 5 pm in French
Friday, October 4, 2019, 12 pm to 1 pm in French and English

PRESS RELEASE (pdf)

PRESS REVIEW

BEHA, Claire-Marine. « 25 expositions d'art visuel pour accueillir la rentrée », Le Baron, September 2nd, 2019.



Miguel Angel Ríos: born in 1943, Catamarca, Argentina
Lives in Mexico City, Mexico / New York, United States

Exhibitions / projections Solo:

Landlocked, Röda Sten Konsthall, Gothenburg (2019); Miguel Angel Ríos: Torn to Shreds, Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino Gallery, Houston (2019); Miguel Angel Ríos: On the Edge, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2019); Miguel Angel Ríos: A Morir (To the Death), Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill (2017); Miguel Angel Ríos: Acirema, No es agua Ni Arena la Orilla del Mar, espaivisor – Galeria Visor, Valencia (2017); Landlocked, Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe (2015); Endless, Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino Gallery, Houston, (2015).

Group:
Creatures: When Species Meet, Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art, Cincinnati (2019); Land of the Lustrous, UCCA Dune, Qinhuangdao (2019); Lubricated Language, AKINCI, Amsterdam (2019); Words/Matter: Latin American Art and Language at the Blanton, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin (2019); Broken Lines, Gallery Wendi Norris, San Francisco (2018); Portrait, Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino Gallery, Houston (2018); Linee di forza + varie sensazioni, Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo, Bergamo (2018); Truth or Dare: A Reality Show, 21c Museum Hotel, Nashville and Cincinnati (2017–19); Home—So Different, So Appealing, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles (2017).

Represented by Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino Gallery (Houston)

sicardi.com/artists/miguel-angel-rios



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Batia Suter, Radial Grammar, 2018,
épreuve au jet d’encre, dimensions variables |
inkjet print, variable dimensions.
© Batia Suter.


Batia Suter
From September 7th 2019 to October 19th 2019
MOMENTA x OPTICA Batia Suter : Radial Grammar

Opening_Friday, September 6, 2019 - 5PM to midnight
Family Saturdays: September 14 and October 19, 2019.

MOMENTA | Biennale de l’image is proud to present its 16th edition, The Life of Things, organized by curator María Wills Londoño in collaboration with Audrey Genois and Maude Johnson. The biennale joins forces with OPTICA and LE BAL (Paris) for the exhibition Batia Suter: Radial Grammar.

Batia Suter collects images from various sources, recontextualizing them as photo animations, sequences, and collages in site-specific installations. In the installation Radial Grammar, Suter combines printed and projected images portraying objects of all sorts—some clearly identifiable and others rather ambiguous. Whether caused by a slight discrepancy, an unusual arrangement, the absence of colour, or a muted style, a sense of uncertainty emanates from the photographs in the gallery, which becomes an immersive atlas, its walls covered with large-format prints. Images are given multiple meanings and connotations so that the content of the representations is both eclectic and coherent. Suter formulates a new syntax of the image: the interplay of association and correspondence forms a visual language.

An exhibition produced in collaboration with LE BAL (Paris), thanks to the financial support of the Mondriaan Fund.

Momenta Time
Guided Tours of the exhibitions at OPTICA
No Booking Required
Saturday, September 14, 2019, 3:30 pm to 5 pm in French
Friday, October 4, 2019, 12 pm to 1 pm in French and English

COMMUNIQUÉ DE PRESSE (pdf)

PRESS REVIEW

BEHA, Claire-Marine. « 25 expositions d'art visuel pour accueillir la rentrée », Le Baron, September 2nd, 2019.



Batia Suter: born in 1967, Bülach, Switzerland.
Lives in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.br>
Exhibitions/projections Solo:
Radial Grammar, LE BAL, Paris (2018); Sole Summary, Centre culturel suisse, Paris (2018); Nature Grammar, Gare de Paris-Montparnasse, Paris (2018); Sea of Ice, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2015); 25x25x25/, LWL Museum für Kunst und Kultur, Münster (2014).

Group: des attentions, Le centre d’art contemporain d’Ivry—le Crédac, Paris (2019); Parallel Encyclopedia Extended, Polygon Gallery, Vancouver (2018); Swiss Art Awards, Bundesamt für Kultur, Art Basel, Basel (2018); Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize, The Photographers’ Gallery, London (2018); Rendez-vous met Frans Hals, Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem (2018); Some Things Hidden, Framer Framed, Amsterdam (2018); Spaces without drama or surface is an illusion, but so is depth, Graham Foundation, Chicago (2017); À l’antique, Musée des Antiquités, Rouen (2017); Les Nouveaux Encyclopédistes, Fotographia Europea, Reggio Emilia (2017).

batiasuter.org




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Planche illustrée : Arthropodes

Les Samedis ensemble en familles |
Saturdays with the Family
From September 14th 2019 to October 19th 2019
Petites histoires oubliées des objets! Autour des œuvres de Batia Suter! |
The Forgotten Stories of Objects! Around the work of Batia Suter!


As part of MOMENTA | Biennale de l’image, OPTICA is presenting the work of artist Batia Suter: she collects, accumulates and classifies images she finds in photo albums, world atlases, illustrated encyclopedias, art and history books, animal magazines, and much more.
With family or friends, OPTICA invites you to play the artist's game during a creative workshop on image transfer. Come, in turn, to assemble, disassemble, arrange, disturb, rearrange and combine the images until a sensible imagination emerges from this chaos of found images.

Practical Information
September 14, 2019 - 1 pm to 4 pm
September 28, 2019 - 1 pm to 4 pm – Part of Journées de la culture
October 19, 2019 - 1 pm to 4 pm

The workshop is open to the whole family and will run continually. Feel free to join in at any time.
Free | No reservation required
For children aged 4 and older
Duration: up to 1 hour and 15 min.

For more information, please contact Sandrine Côté: mediation@optica.ca




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Karen Tam et élèves de 2e cycle
du primaire de l'école Saint-Arsène, Vases. | Vases en papier mâcher.
| Paper chew vases. Crédit Photo : Sandrine Côté

Karen Tam
Artiste à l'école
From September 29th 2019 to January 31st 2020
Exposition des élèves de 2e cycle du primaire de l'école Saint-Arsène, sur une proposition de Karen Tam

As part of the Artist at School program developed since 2014 by the OPTICA center, artist Karen Tam developed a series of workshops with students of second cycle of primary elementary school from Saint-Arsène school.

Next February 14 will be the opening of the students exhibition at Saint-Arsène Elementary School.

OPTICA would like to thank the staff and students of Saint-Arsène Elementary School.

To get more information on our educational programming, contact Sandrine Côté: mediation@optica.ca




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Shannon Cochrane, Silent Dinner, 2015, FADO Performance Art Centre/Progress Festival The Theatre Centre, Toronto. © Henry Chan

Shannon Cochrane
From November 19th 2019 to December 14th 2019
Silent Dinner

Residency of Shannon Cochrane
November 19 - December 14, 2019
Video Documentation (2015) in gallery
From November 19 to December 13, 2019

Performance Saturday, December 14 from 12 pm to 7 pm, followed by a Q&A period. Note that there will be ASL and LSQ interpreters at the gallery all day during the performance.
Event here

VLOG HERE/ASL

Saturday with the Family: December 14, 2019, 12 pm to 4 pm

Vocabulary is to language as ingredients are to a recipe: how to cook a silent dinner

I have a recurring dream in which I take a job as a server in a café. My first day gets off to a good start until my section starts to fill up with customers. I write down my first order before I remember that I don’t know where the kitchen is. I start to search, opening every door and running through labyrinthine hallways. At each turn, I end up right where I started. The habit of movement. I beg every member of staff I meet to tell me where the kitchen is and even though I follow every pointed finger, I’m still lost. If this wasn’t already bad enough, each time I emerge into the main dining room, my section has grown. More and more tables, full of customers waiting to be served. I attempt to take all the orders at once but I can’t hear anything. It’s though people are talking to me from far away, from the other side of a long tunnel, their voices becoming more and more faint. I read once that every sentence any one has ever uttered has already been said. There is no combination of words that is wholly unique. The deep groove of language, like a broken record. Suddenly, I realize that everyone in the café is speaking a different language, each one their own broken record, and I wake up.

For Silent Dinner, the gallery is transformed into a working kitchen. Over the course of seven hours, a group of people prepare, cook and eat a meal together. Throughout the performance, each one is engaged in the task of resisting their languages of origin. Here, in the space of the performance, language is intentionally deprioritized as a strategy to make visible communication and negotiation as an embodied practice. Our dinner table becomes the meeting place for the intersection of culture and language (hearing and Deaf culture, English and French, ASL and LSQ) and the invitation is to sit, however uneasily, with the tensions between them.

Silent Dinner is collectively created by Shannon Cochrane, Martin Bélanger, Sylvain Gélinas, Mathew Kuntz, Mathieu Lacroix, Lamathilde, kimura byol-nathalie lemoine, Jennifer Manning, Marie-Pierre Petit and Hodan Youssouf.

As a group, we are a mix of artists, performers, actors, filmmakers, magicians, artist-run culture geeks, curators, archivists, organizers, event planners, teachers, activists, queers, feminists, moms, all-gendered, refugees, immigrants, settlers, English, French, hearing and Deaf. Nine Montrealers and a Torontoian.

Shannon Cochrane

Performers:
Martin Bélanger has been active on the professional art scene since 1992. His approach is characterized by a broadened practice. As a performer, actor, collaborator, counselor, and choreo-grapher, he takes part in projects that range from experimental theater to contemporary dance, including the interdisciplinary, He completed a bachelor degree at Université du Québec à Montréal in 1997. His work has been presented throughout Canada as well as in New York City, Berlin, Geneva, Bergen (Norway), Helsinki, France and Japan. Parallel to his own creations, he collaborated with Jacob Wren, Benoît Lachambre, Carole Nadeau, kondition pluriel, Line Nault, Isabelle Schad, Michael Toppings, Epsilon Lab et Oli Sorenson. A lot of these engagements led to national and international touring. In 2004, he founded his company Productions Laps. He has been commissioned by several institutions such as Montréal Danse, LADMMI l'école de danse contemporaine, the School of Dance of Ottawa, Dancemakers, and by several independent artists such as Peter Trosztmer, Sarah Williams and Ève Garnier. He directed creative workshops with Le Groupe dance Lab, Studio 303 and at La B.A.R.N. (10 Gates Dancing, Tedd Robinson). He has been a program officer for the Canada Council for the Arts from 2013 to 2016 and now works at DLD - Daniel Léveillé Danse in administration.

Sylvain Gélinas is deaf and has Usher syndrome. Born in Senneterre (Abitibi), he holds a college diploma (AEC) in communications with a specialization in cinema from Collège Rosemont. He studied French at Cégep du Vieux-Montréal. Gélinas has produced short, medium, and feature-length films and continues to develop his creative talents in “cinéma sourd” (deaf cinema) with his team. He has won important awards, which enabled him to launch his production company, Cinéall, in 1999, wich offers production services in alternate LSQ and ASL formats. These adaptations on video and DVD media aim to transpose content expressed in a spoken or written language into a visual language more accessible to the deaf.

Mathew Kuntz was born in Alberta and is currently living in Montreal with his marvellous beau. He is a multidisciplinary talent working as an actor, singer, writer, event planner and educator. He is an active animator and supporter of Deaf and Hard of Hearing communities across Canada through the development a variety of creative projects.

Mathieu Lacroix lives and works in Montreal. He has a Bachelor’s in visual arts from Université du Québec à Montréal. Since 2003, he has participated in several group exhibitions in artists’ centres and cultural events in Quebec. A member of the Pic-nique collective, Lacroix draws inspiration from recycling and incorporates cheap materials into his works. The cardboard box serves as both primary motif and as critique of consumer society in his multidisciplinary practice, which includes installations, drawing, photography, and performance.

Lamathilde is video/sound/performance artist. Sound is at the core of her practice investigating sexuality and gender. Lamathilde has founded lesbian artist collectives, a women’s work co-op and hosted her own radio shows. She is an avid collaborator, working with WWKA performance collective, Coral Short and many sound artists. Since 1999 Her work has been shown in many galleries and international festivals.

kimura byol-nathalie lemoine is a conceptual multimedia feminist artist whose work addresses identity through diaspora, ethnicity, colorism, post-colonialism, immigration and gender. kimura*lemoine is an activist archivist, currently working with ACA (Adoptees Cultural Archives), documenting adoptee’s cultural history through media and arts.

Born in Quebec and deaf by birth, Jennifer Manning has always been very active in the deaf community, both in Quebec and in Western Canadian, where she lived for 10 years. Her passion for the theatre began when she was very young. She was recently part of the cast in a Quebec Sign Language (LSQ) adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. She wrote short plays for deaf audiences at the Centre des Loisirs des Sourds de Montréal and has performed as an LSQ actor for the Guerilla Girls. Since the summer of 2019, she has begun translating songs in LSQ and ASL with the L-Expression performance troupe.

Marie-Pierre Petit was introduced to magic and the performing arts at eight years of age. She created her character, Clown Pafolie, alongside her father’s, the clown Pafou. They performed in several shows together. The day Pafou retired, Marie-Pierre (Pafolie) continued solo by presenting shows that were as brilliantly magical and fun. She then trained as a clown and took part in many events in collaboration with well-known organizations in the deaf community as well as for hearing audiences during awareness-raising activities.

Born in Somalia, Hodan Youssouf has been deaf since childhood. She immigrated to Canada in 1989 after a passage in France as a refugee with her brothers and sisters. Youssouf is now very active in the deaf community in Montreal. Working as an aid to deaf students at Gadbois elementary school since 2010, she also collaborates with Cinéall, an organization that strives to find innovative communications solutions between the deaf and hearing communities. With an interest in theatre, she also took part in the ASL adaptation of Romeo and Juliet in Toronto. Youssouf is a socially engaged poet and actress and has been involved in a slew of projects over the years, both in Quebec and abroad.

Interpreters:
Martin Boucher (ASL/LSQ, TraduSigne)
Brigitte Giguère (LSQ, SIVET)
Jordan Mark Goldman (ASL)
Stéphanie Lamy-Therrien (ASL/LSQ, TraduSigne)
Mathieu Larivière (ASL/LSQ, TraduSigne)
Lina Ouellet (LSQ, SIVET)
Jennifer Roberts (ASL)
Sandra Saoumaa (ASL)


OPTICA has received the support of Conseil des arts de Montréal, the Fondation des Sourds du Québec and would like to thank intern Dominique Robb, the Vidéographe center and VIVA! Art Action.

PRESS RELEASE (pdf)


viva




Shannon Cochrane is a Toronto-based performance artist. Her work has been presented in museums, galleries and festivals across Canada and in over eighteen countries around the world. She is the Director of FADO Performance Art Centre and is a founding member and organizer of the 7a11d International Festival of Performance Art. Shannon’s practice is focused on manifesting/illustrating/wrestling with the tension between strategy and process; context and perception; and authorship and repetition.




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Claudia Goulet-Blais, Souper de famille, 2019, objet sculptural, pâte à modeler. | sculptural object, modelling clay.

Samedi ensemble en familles |
Saturday with the Family
From December 14th 2019 to December 14th 2019
Souper de famille, autour de l’œuvre de Shannon Cochrane!

Shannon Cochrane, a Toronto artist whose artistic practice is primarily based on performance art, will present Silent Dinner at OPTICA from 12pm to 7pm. This performance, a silent meal preparation in front of the public, is a collaboration between a group of Deaf and hearing artists and performers.

From 1pm to 4pm, during the presentation, young people and their families are invited to take part in the Family Dinner creative workshop at OPTICA. Come personalize your clay, play, create and have fun with it while being inspired by the gestures observed during the performance. We look forward to cooking with you!

Practical Information
December 14, 2019 - 1 pm to 4 pm
Welcome to children who express themselves in sign language and hearing impaired children. ASL and LSQ interpreters at the gallery all day during the day.

The workshop is open to the whole family and will run continually. Feel free to join in at any time.
Free | No reservation required
For children aged 4 and older
Duration: up to 4 hours.

For more information, please contact Sandrine Côté: mediation@optica.ca




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Directrices du projet : Lynn Hughes, Marie-Josée Lafortune.
Auteurs : Lynne Bell, Joan Borsa, Tim Clark, Curtis J. Collins, Jean Dubois, Guy Sioui Durand, Vera Frenkel, Amy Gogarty, Nicole Jolicoeur, Johanne Lamoureux, Patrice Loubier, Mireille Perron, Christine Ross. Lynn Hugues, Marie-Josée Lafortune (préface).
December 19th 2019
Version numérique de Penser l’indiscipline : recherches interdisciplinaires en art contemporain / Creative Confusions: Interdisciplinary Practices in Contemporary Art

Published in 2001 by OPTICA, centre d'art contemporain, the book Creative Con/Fusions : Interdisciplinary Practices in Contemporary Art is now available in its entirety in a digital version. It is also possible to consult it in the collections of the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ) and e-artexte. The volume addresses questions about the multidisciplinary approach that remain current and that over the years have become more assertive.

Penser l’indiscipline : recherches interdisciplinaires en art contemporain_Digital Version_(pdf)

Creative Con/Fusions : Interdisciplinary Practices in Contemporary Art looks at interdisciplinary theory and practice in contemporary art with a particular, but not an exclusive, focus on contemporary practices in Québec and Canada. The thirteen authors – artists, teachers, curators, theoreticians, and historians – elaborate critical definitions and reflections that are both historical and personal. The importance of performance and video artforms in relation to the emergence of interdisciplinary critical thinking, the contribution of feminist, post-colonial and other theories that address marginality and hybridity, the creation of provocative, inclusive teaching models, the stimulus provided by a host of new technologies, fresh activist art practices, the challenge of independent curating, etc. – these elements all act as release mechanisms for a re-evaluation of the idea of interdisciplinarity as it applies to current practices in and around art.