Montreal Mirror : Artsweek

Innate expectations

EVERYBODY INTO THE POOL: A Cohen spa photo

For the past 15 years, dancer-improviser Marc Boivin has collaborated with Montreal ’s dance improv guru Andrew de Lotbinière Harwood. But Boivin has always sat in the passenger seat. That’s about to change. For their next collaboration, R.A.F.T. 70 (Remembering and Forgetting Together), Boivin takes the reins at Harwood’s request. “I was really happy giving input to his projects,” says Boivin. “But with this, it was a way for him to turn things around.”

Boivin assembles movers Lin Snelling, David Rancourt and Maureen Shea to jam with sound artist Diane Labrosse, video artist Jonathan Inksetter and lighting designer Yan Lee Chan. As a group, they work with 15 movement scores and contemplate the passing down of information between people and generations.
“One of the things I like about improv is its parallel to life,” says Boivin. “I can plan my whole day, but it never happens exactly as I planned. If something happens in the morning, it will affect the afternoon. This change between expectations and experience is something I find inspiring.” The show unfolds nightly at 8 p.m. at Théâtre la Chapelle (3700 St-Dominique) until Jan. 27, $15–$18, (514) 843-7738.
—MARITES CARINO

Sex and the shimmy

Choreographer-dancer Lucie Carmen Grégoire has always been interested in tinkering with societal clichés and stereotypes concerning men and women. Her new two-part choreography You Said Woman? Tome I - Tome II takes these notions and transforms them using two completely different viewpoints.

The first section features Grégoire in an ambiance dripping with hypersexuality. “In Tome I, I’m dissecting the sexual parts of my body,” she says. “And I try to work on the concept of rawness because I want people to focus on the details.” When she started working on this piece two years ago, she knew there would be a sequel because she definitely had more to say.

Tome II, says Grégoire, has a completely different feel: “It shows the body in a way that deconstructs the clichés and stereotypes so that people can see beauty in the physicality of the body.” In this more upbeat section, Grégoire creates a rhythmic dynamic with vocal percussionist Dominique Laguë of electro-phonetic duo Motus 3F. They’re on stage nightly at 8 p.m. at the Monument National (1182 St-Laurent) until Jan. 27, (514) 871-2224.

—Marites Carino

Your turn

Many of you may be familiar with the much-lauded work of experimental filmmaker Nikki Forrest. Tomorrow night, Jan. 26, Forrest will be trying a new kind of experiment at Articule (262 Fairmount W.). She is hosting Open Screen, an evening where you are invited to come and show your short videos, works-in-progress or excerpts of five minutes or less. Forrest says, “It’s a place for people who are making video to try things out in front of an audience—test the waters and exchange ideas with others.”

If you want to participate, bring works on DVD, Mini DV or VHS to the gallery between 7 and 7:30 pm. The screening will start at 8 p.m. on a first-come, first-shown basis and will last a maximum of 90 minutes followed by an informal discussion. If there is a good response to Open Screen, Forrest sees this becoming an ongoing event for the local video community. Forrest will also be showing her own short video loop in the upcoming group show Capsules-Mémoire at the Cinémathèque québécoise from March 9–April 29.

—Christine Redfern

Textual healing

Spoken word/performance artist Victoria Stanton has been writing and performing what she calls “fledgling broken songs” or “fragments of naïve songs and truncated texts” for the past couple of years, both in Montreal and far-flung locales like Melbourne , Australia . “They’re songs that appeal to the child in the adult,” Stanton explains. “They’re naïve, but from an adult perspective.” She mentions a wide assortment of influences, including Jad Fair, Syd Barrett, Captain Beefheart, Aki Tsuyuko and local hero Nathalie Derome. “They do partake of storytelling,” says Stanton , “but in some cases it’s like you wandered in at the middle of the story and were forced out before the story ended.”

Host Ian Ferrier welcomes Stanton , along with Alexis O’Hara, Stephen Thomas and Will Aitken this Sunday for the first Words and Music at the Casa of the year. That’s this Sunday, Jan. 28, at Casa del Popolo (4873 St-Laurent), 8 p.m., $5.

—Vincent Tinguely

Is it Art?

HOW’S YOUR ASS? Politically inclined sculpture aficionados with a fancy for the back door, rejoice: celebrity buttplugs are here. Those who aren’t into anal toys, you can move on down to the Arts Hole. Y’all who like the idea that the U.S. President’s head is not only up his own ass, but can be up yours too, meet George Dubya Tush, also available with vibrating “Assquake” feature. If you’d get off better on a different kind of celebrity, the company also sells Smell Gibson (Bravefart edition), Parass Hilton and Dingleberry Bonds versions. The 16-ounce rubber gadgets are made in the USA , and can be ordered through www.celebritybuttplugs.com for $19.99.

ArtsHole

THE BELLY AND THE BEASTS: An obese man, mutated cast wax heads, miniature hybrid beings and portraits reflecting modern-day pop culture idols and gay porn all come together in a spectacle of the grotesque, of irreverent behaviour and excess. La Tête au ventre showcases work from Alain Benoît, Louis Fortier, Myriam Laplante and Claude Perreault at Concordia’s Leonard & Bina Ellen art gallery (1400 de Maisonneuve W.) until Feb. 24. • FRUIT LOOP: Andrée Préfontaine presents her looped video of a strawberry going through the rotting process in a one-night-only performance with collaborators Mathieu Bouchard, Michal Seta and Ben Bogart using a plugged-in cello and various computer effects. It’s at Galerie B-312 today, Jan. 25, 8 p.m., $5. Préfontaine’s exhibition, Ô divine, continues until Feb. 17.

ARISTAT: Number of Canadian schools whose students are participating in The Montreal Centre for Contemporary Textiles’ (5800 St-Denis, #501) exhibition Small Talk, showcasing 100 miniature pieces of art from Feb. 1–28: 12

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