Radical architecture flashback

UNCONVENTIONAL PERIODICAL:
A magazine from Clip/Stamp/Fold 2

Right now at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (1920 Baile), you can check out the magazine ARse, as well as 70 other unconventional architecture publications from the ’60s and ’70s. ARse stands for Architects for a Really Socialist Environment or Architectural Radicals, Students and Educators—either way, it’s pretty clear that this periodical reflects a different era.

I had the opportunity to chat with curator Beatriz Colomina, as well as Craig Buckley, a member from her team of Princeton PhD students who helped put together this exhibition, titled Clip/Stamp/Fold 2: The Radical Architecture of Little Magazines 196X–197X, over the past two years. They chose to focus on this fertile period to “provoke debate about publications in architecture and encourage new voices.”

As I scan the zines on display, their critical content and graphic design is obvious, but what may come as the biggest surprise to viewers is that not one publication has a building on the cover. If you go, don’t overlook the wonderful series of interviews with some of the editors and contributors, including Peter Eisenman and Bernard Tschumi. Exhibition runs until Sept. 9, info: (514) 939-7000.

by CHRISTINE REDFERN

Mom, pop and Kidd

Catherine Kidd’s fifth book, Missing the Ark, expands on the nuanced, microcosmic meditations found in her performed pieces, and brings all her skill at deconstructing human (and non-human) relationships to bear on one particularly dysfunctional family’s life.

“One theme was paternal estrangement, the father who is not there but seems everywhere in his absence,” Kidd explains. “Another was maternal ambivalence, the reality that mothers sometimes really resent their kids.”

Kidd’s keen, burlesque sense of humour unpacks issues otherwise hard to face. “There is no appropriate or inappropriate response to some of the horrors people seem capable of visiting on each other. You’re actually letting yourself connect with it by laughing,” says Kidd. “You laugh at the absurdity, you laugh at your own mortality.”

Kidd launches Missing the Ark as part of the Blue Metropolis literary festival on Friday, April 27, 7 p.m., at la Terrasse, Delta Centre-Ville Hotel (777 University), free. Info at bluemmetropolis.org.

by VINCENT TINGUELY

Exhaling en masse

MEDITATIVE MOVEMENTS: La Traversée

Choreographer Héloïse Rémy is the chef d’orchestre in a meditative symphony of movement and breath she calls La Traversée. “It’s a dance to feel with your whole being and not just with your eyes and ears,” she says about her outdoor dance intervention, built from breathing and choreographic structures.

One hundred dancers and non-dancers inhale and exhale en masse during Rémy’s hour-long piece that loops a three-minute movement sequence for the entire work. She likens it to “watching a fire because it’s always the same, but always different.” Rémy’s project, which she plans on taking around the world after this performance, is the opening act for the International Day of Dance celebrations at Place des Arts this Sunday, April 29. Rain or shine, you’ll find the performance outside on the esplanade at 11 a.m.

As part of the festivities, le Regroupement québécois de la danse is offering freebie activities like installations, performances and workshops all weekend. Get the complete schedule at www.quebecdanse.org.

by MARITES CARINO

Is it art?

THESE BUDS ARE FOR YOU: MySpace and Facebook, meet Cherry- Tap. CherryTap is a newer, drunker, hornier and usually tattooed member of the social networking scene. The site follows the usual formula: sign up, upload a few photos, fill in your interests and let the friend amassing begin. The difference is that CherryTap sets itself up as an online pub. Within its virtually smoky confines exists a crowd that deals in Cherry Bucks, people who care less for the latest blogger band than partying, motocross, smoking, gambling, strip clubs and guns ’n’ ammo. And, for $100 (USD), you can host a happy hour where everything’s half price and you get your photo next to the logo for its duration. Which means, friends galore. What are you waiting for? Get loaded at www.cherrytap.com.

Arts hole

BROWN-SNOW: Inspiration for the Carte Grise à Michael Snow is based on the artist’s long-time collaboration with self-proclaimed visual alchemist Carl Brown. Triage, a film that projects autonomous footage by the two artists side-by-side, along with other films by Brown and Snow, are now playing at the Goethe Institute (418 Sherbrooke E.) Brown’s photography and a film of the Triage premiere at the Goethe are on display at Dazibao (4001 Berri) until June 2. • CELEBRATING QUEBEC: If you’re planning a trip to Ottawa, you can catch the National Arts Centre’s Quebec Scene festival, until May 5, for that home-away-from-home feel. The festival will incorporate a melange music, dance, visual arts, film, circus, culinary arts and more that la belle province has to offer.

Artistat

Number of politically minded artists showcasing their creative talents at the first edition of the Art + Anarchy Montreal 2007 exhibit, part of Montreal’s month-long Festival of Anarchy, from May 3–13 at the Esplanade Loft Project (6750 Esplanade): 230+