Department of synergy

digital do: A video scene from Constellations Dynamiques

The occult, human interconnectedness and “pronoia” (the opposite of paranoia) are among interdisciplinary artist Johnny Ranger’s signature themes, as they lend themselves well to abstraction through a digital language of signs and vibrations that keep technophobes at bay.

The Mindroots founder and co-artistic director of Moment Factory—that creative body banging out bundles of neat audiovisual “moments”—cross-pollinates freely between artistic disciplines in his latest multimedia opus Constellations Dynamiques, disproving that multi-channel video, live music, theatre and dance are mutually exclusive.

Constellations is a mind-bending experiment in spontaneous creation that left me shattered to the core (that’s good) when it first ran at the SAT in 2005. Ranger, whose esoteric body of work is both refreshingly authentic and enthralling, works here with loops of tweaked images captured on his travels to India, Brazil, Bali and the U.S. He marries his layered visual stimuli to live choreography and musical interventions supplied by an eclectic bevy of creators. More than a rhythmic video workout, the sum of this inspired synergy—boasting punchy peaks as well as more meditative tableaus—is an ode to the transformative power of our encounters with the unknown. At Usine C (1345 Lalonde) between Feb. 23–March 1, $20.

—Michael-Oliver Harding

Afro-fusion power

with help from his friends: Mantsoe (left)

South African choreographer Vincent Mantsoe puts it plainly: “Dancing is life. You tell the stories of who you are and where you come from. I have been dancing since I was in the womb of my mother!”

Mantsoe, now based in France, has been surrounded by different cultures all his life, and this, he says, is reflected in his new work. Men-Jaro features five dancers from “all corners of the world” and a quintet of on-stage musicians who play traditional South African wind, string and percussion instruments. The piece plays on relationships between different cultures and how they relate to each other through movement and music. “A person is a person because of other people,” says Mantsoe translating a Sotho expression. “You cannot be someone without the help of other people.”

Known for his Afro-fusion style, Mantsoe (who won the Prix du Peuple during the Festival International de Nouvelle Danse in 1999) returns with a featured solo in the hour-long work. It runs Feb. 27–28, 8 p.m., at the Théâtre Maisonneuve in Place des Arts.

—Marites Carino

Pencil to plankton

Usually, we try to distance ourselves from bacteria and the microscopic organisms that exist all around us, but not artist Annie Thibault. In the past, she has grown her own moulds and drawn with live bacteria to create her art. In her latest exhibition, Fleeting Mastery, she again returns to the world of living cells, this time bringing to light the lowly plankton.

By projecting a video of plankton onto her drawing surface, Thibault sketches the drifters as they move across each paper, filming herself in the process. There is something hypnotic in watching her pencil follow these cells—a kind of analogy of the difficulties faced by artists in their attempts to capture ephemeral moments.

The exhibition also includes a wall filled with the drawings that resulted from the making of the videos, which, unfortunately, are far less interesting. Perhaps it is because of my background in medical art and the unbelievable cellular works I’ve encountered in this field that I found Thibault’s drawn organisms lifeless and unresolved. Fleeting Mastery continues at Pierre-François Ouellette (372 Ste-Catherine W., #216) until March 17, info: (514) 395-6032.

—Christine Redfern

You can’t kick Coco

Montreal’s longest running spoken word show caught a November chill from the new owners of their old venue. “His words were, Coco Café is ‘alienating’ his regular clients,” says series cofounder Inobe Stanislaus. “By my count, there were probably eight people who were alienated, compared to 100 who’d turn up for a night. He told us that we had to make plans to move the show, but given that attitude, we decided to leave immediately.”

After a brief hiatus, Coco Café celebrates Black History Month this Sunday with Free at Last. “We’re celebrating the freedom we’ve had after hundreds of years of slavery,” Coco MC Jason “Steel” Joseph says. “It’s also a celebration of change because we’re at a new place.”

The new place is Boodha Bar (1401 MacKay), where you’ll find sizzling Toronto wordsmith Kamesah, DJ Franky Selector and Coco Café’s hot line-up of favourites, this Sunday, Feb. 25, 9 p.m., $8.

—Vincent Tinguely

Is it art?

BACKGROUND CHECK: If you’re talking about one’s culture, then no, according to animator Masoud Raouf, that’s not art. This Wednesday, Feb. 28, the Iranian-born artist gives a talk at Oboro (4001 Berri, #301) called “Cultural Diversity Is Not Expression.” “I’m afraid that my expression as an artist is often buried by this cliché,” he says. “I seem to be turning myself into a historical object, and my stories and experiences become gift-shop handicraft, suitable for the 99-cent red tag special.”

Raouf’s presentation is the last in Oboro’s Momentum project, a series of talks by artists of Asian heritage who work in Canada. It starts at 6:30 p.m., and admission is free.

Arts hole

COMIX CALL:The annual mass street painting event, Nuit blanche sur tableau noir, is taking a slightly different approach for this year’s edition, to be held on June 7. Rather than focusing on a broad theme, the organizers have come up with a central character and scenerio, to be interpreted and contextualized by 45 artists during the all-night event, resulting in a comic strip running over one kilometre on Mont-Royal. For the scenerio and application details, visit www.mont-royal.net/articles.php?id=628 (French only). • CHOREOGRAPHIC COUNT–UP: Studio 303’s (372 Ste-Catherine W., #303) Vernissage Danse #133 centres on the theme of love and hate. The evening features Andrew Forster, Jody Hegel and Hannah Dorozio, Sarah Van’t Hull, Teoma Naccarato and a video from Jenn Goodwin, this Saturday, Feb. 24, at 8:30 p.m

Artistat

Number of countries, since its inception in 1958, that the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has performed (see them Feb 22–24 at Place des Arts): 71

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