Physical, feminine,
dramatic
MOMENT OF WEAKNESS: VertigesCelebrating its 15th anniversary, Montreal’s Festival Vue sur la relève, dedicated to up-and-coming performance artists, opens with choreographer Stéphanie Decourteille’s piece Vertiges tonight, Thursday, April 1 at 8 p.m.
Originally from France, Decourteille created Vertiges in 2009 and brought it to Montreal for a residency at Places des Arts last September. “I wanted to reveal the moments of physical weakness we experience as human beings on a daily basis,” says Decourteille.
The movements of the dancer reflect the body’s fatigue at repeating the same gestures all day. Decourteille adds that she wanted to show this through a feminine perspective, with an element of fragility.
As the only dancer on stage, she says there’s also an evolution with her character. “She’s passed through several stages throughout the solo of VertigesThere are moments that are pretty tough. It’s all a little bit dramatic,” she says.
Vertiges will be presented at the Maison de la culture Frontenac (2550 Ontario E.). The evening also features performances by circus troupe Cirquons Flex and dancer-choreographer Helen Simoneau.
by ROXANE HUDON
Speak, fabric
COMMUNICATIVE CLOTH: Text in Textile
For those of you who think you know what textiles are (pieces of cloth or fabric woven or knit from natural or synthetic fibres) and what they can do (cover your furniture, keep you warm), the new show at MAI (3680 Jeanne-Mance), which opens tonight, Thursday, April 1 at 5 p.m., is bound to blow your mind.
As the name suggests, Text in Textile, by fibre and multimedia artist Anna Biro, has a story to tell, but it’s the way that textiles communicate that is so incredible: they speak, literally.
Comprised of three individual pieces, the exhibition employs new technologies that allow the gallery visitor to interact acoustically with the work. For example, as you walk across the “Sound Carpet,” your feet will trigger a chorus of immigrant voices, depending on when and where you step. The “Rope of Hope” is constructed from fibres that can sense physical touch, responding to your presence in ways both surprising and deeply human.
In the end, what Biro’s project investigates is the way that everyday objects and environments bear witness to human experience. By making these experiences audible and concrete, she asks the viewer to reflect on their own experiences and relationships with the material world.
by STACEY DEWOLFE
Art, music—go!
Art meets reality TV tonight as the Virus d’improvisation picturale (VIP) hosts its sixth event of the year. Founded two years ago, the VIP has built up a league of four teams of six painters who battle it out on canvases, usually several artists at a time, in front of a live audience while a band called Elektropaint provides an improvised funk/prog soundtrack. Things are held together by MC Rock Larue,  who chooses the themes for the works and hosts an auction at the end of the night.
“Some artists can’t function under pressure, but others are really stimulated by it. The confrontational aspect of painting together in a group in a short space of time makes you realize how important it is to listen and back off,” says organizer and artist NADine Samuel. “Sometimes you can recognize traits from the different artists in the same work. Other times the symbiosis creates something really balanced.”
Tonight sees the Peste Noire team take on the Fourmis Rouges Ravageuses at 7 p.m. at the Belmont (4483 St-Laurent). The winners of the series will face down the champions from Lac St-Jean’s own improv festival this summer. See virusdimprovisationpicturale.com for details.
by MATT JONES
Epic bad taste
“He’s one of my favourite European playwrights,” says director Jacqueline Van de Geer. “He literally drank himself to death. There’s wonderful, feverish language in his work—he wrote in the middle of the night, often listening to [industrial rock band] Einstürzende Neubauten.”
Greer is talking about German playwright Werner Schwab, whose work Holy Mothers has been described as “an epic of bad taste,” scatological stuff where  bodily functions, graphic sexual language and murderous onstage violence happily commingle.
Schwab was a meteor who streaked across experimental theatre in the early ’90s before burning out at 35—found dead, slumped in an armchair on New Year’s Day.
His three-woman play, which is at Nouveau Théâtre Ste-Catherine (264 Ste-Catherine E.) April 6–11, is about some not-so-average moms: one unblocks toilets barehanded, another fantasizes about her son having sex (so she’ll be a grandma!), the third watches the Pope on TV and dreams of being groped at the beer fest.
“In ‘normal’ plays,” Van de Geer continues, “actors speak lines of dialogue or monologue and it all refers to each other. Schwab’s play is hell for actresses—they talk and talk and don’t listen—and that’s actually what it’s about.”
by NEIL BOYCE
IS IT ART?
GAMING LOVE: An obsession with gaming and a lack of a girlfriend (or a girlfriend who’s more pillow than girl) has long been a running joke, but new site  GameCrush wants to change all that. Aiming to bring obsessive gamers of both sexes together, GameCrush is a sort of pseudo-gaming/dating site where gamers can bond while trying to out-skill each other in Halo 3.
The site, which went live last week, has over 1,200 registered “PlayDates,” available girls (or guys) for you to play with. Once you’ve chosen your date, you can chose to play a one-on-one game like checkers, or join your date in the Xbox Live multiplayer forum and battle away at four games: GTAIV, Modern Warfare 2, Gears of War 2 and, of course, Halo 3.
PlayDates go for $6.60 for 10 minutes, a small price for a chance at gaming love.
http://prd.gamecrush.com/
Arts hole
MYTHIC LAUNCH: Author Claude Lalumière teams up with Mirror music editor Rupert Bottenberg to create lostmyths.net, a collaborative project and website featuring cryptomythological comics, fiction, art, readings, performances, games and more. The site launches this Wednesday, April 7, 8 p.m., at O Patro Vys (356 Mont-Royal E.) with a Lost Myths performance at 9 p.m. and DJ Andy Williams spinning before and after the show. Free. . • POSTER COMPETITION: The International Garden Festival wants you to design their official poster for the 2010 edition. Open to poster artists, illustrators, graphic designers and photographers till April 9. See http://is.gd/b5lMl for details. • SAVOURING IDENTITY: Choreographers Mélanie Demers and Laïla Diallo explore identity in their latest work Sauver sa peau, at the Tohu (2345 Jarry E.) tonight, Thursday, April 1 at 8 p.m., free.
Artistat
The amount it’ll cost you to catch Torngat—as well as exhibitions by Marcel Dzama, Etienne Zack, Luanne Martineau and more—at the MAC (185 Ste-Catherine W.) this Friday, April 2 from 5–9 p.m. as part of Vendredis Nocturnes: $10
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