What war?

“The idea is to look at the cup as being half-full and not half-empty. Why wallow? Do you still believe in peace? I still do,” says Ivan Freud, producer of Peace Party, an all-night extravaganza on the anniversary of Sept. 11.

At precisely 9:11 p.m., music and dance gets going and continues into the wee hours of the morning with the help of DJs Baby Dino, Cheeba Cheeba Kid, Seb, Alex and Eleven. Also, DJs Aquarius and Longstocking jam with an eclectic handful of musicians.

With the theme of peace and liberation in mind, dancers Sajawi, Shanti and Namchi take the stage for three solo performances. Later, look out for dance group Mange Mes Pieds on trampolines in giant blow-up tubes, performing their Heroines of Peace.

Freud calls the Peace Party “a cross-cultural, cross-generational, cross-clique multimedia event, gathering all peace-minded individuals under the banner: ‘May all beings be happy.’”

Three filmmakers will document the whole shebang on-site at the Theatre Plaza (6505 St. Hubert). Tickets are $11 in advance (284-5393 or 844-8998), or $15 at the door. :
-Marites Carino

Blurring reality

On first glance, Toni Hafkenscheid’s photographs all have the glossy-smooth feel of make-believe, though in fact their origins are true. In his latest exhibit, HO, the Amsterdam-born artist presents a variety of ordinary North American landscapes-urban, suburban, and woodsy alike-and by playing with focus, makes them look less like actual places and more like the miniature set of Mr. Rogers’ neighbourhood.

Hafkenscheid’s photos share a common thread of blurred foregrounds and backgrounds while in the middle, “neat houses and deserted streets, shops and trains breaking through majestic landscapes make the dark side of things invisible.”

Appropriately named after the scale of model train sets, HO has a distinctive ’50s feel, recalling “a certain American dream, an idealized view of an immediate future.” Catch Hafkenscheid’s blurring of “the limits between reality and fiction” at Dazibao (4001 Berri) until Oct. 5 as well as at the VIA Rail station (895 de la Gauchetière W.) in the form of a looping video projection. :
-Matthew Woodley

Stuff of
memory

Alain Lafromboise’s new exhibit focuses on “banal” objects that one would come across in garage sales or in forgotten corners and, using light and shadow, gives them a certain glowing, “lifelike aura.” The colour photographs of Visions domestiques II play with the notions of “banal” objects and memory. “In these images, everything takes us back to the past, but, curiously, to a past that has never been… these objects seem to emerge from within the masses of our memory.” Runs from Sept. 5–Oct. 5 at Galerie Graff (963 Rachel E.), vernissage on Sept.5 at 5 p.m. :

Visualizing
vulnerable

One would think an artist who crawls under a piece of furniture during a performance would be worth avoiding, but it apparently is an integral part of Vida Simon’s show. Calling it “exploring the notions of freedom and madness,” Simon’s performance art is full of such “simple, nonsensical actions.”

Opera Eclipses, Simon’s latest work, is both improv and installation, as it uses elements of drawing, text and performance. Her art has been described as “visceral, elemental and organic, much like the material she uses: paper, thread, rust and sound.” The show draws largely on spur-of-the-moment actions, not centred on a finished work of art, “but to privilege the process of artistic inquiry and reveal the evolution and vulnerability of a work in progress.” Opera Eclipses is at Articule (4001 Berri, #105) until mid-October. Accompanying performances take place on Tuesday, Sept. 10 and 17 at 10 a.m., and Sept. 15 and 21 at 4 p.m. :
-Matthew Woodley

Is it Art?

Have a bird: What could make home more colourful than an exotic bird flying around the livingroom? For feather fetishists and curious onlookers alike, what will surely be the bird event of the season hits town this weekend. The Annual Exposition/Symposium of Exotic Birds will have hundreds of exotic flying friends on display and for sale, as well as experts on hand for the conference ranging from a parrot psychologist to a birdseed nutritionist. It all happens on Sept. 7–8, 10 a.m.–5 p.m., at the Centre Saint-Mathieu (7110 8th Ave.), www.aeom.ca for info. :

ArtsHole

E-alienation: Painters Damon Eykermans and Claudine Kollman use their contrasting styles to present “the central themes of alienation caused by ever growing technology and media saturation” in Pull my Strings, running from Sept. 11–15 at Galerie Artus (988 Rachel E.). *Fennario fundraiser: Without a Parachute, a benefit for playwright David Fennario, who is battling Guillain-Barré syndrome, takes place at the Centaur theatre on Monday, Sept. 9, call 281-3161 for tickets or donation info. *Tango for tolerance: Dance troupes and musica galore go down at the Tango Against Racism Day, this Saturday, Sept. 7, 2–8 p.m. in Viger Square, free, before the action moves into the Union française for a giant tango ball from 8 p.m.–3 a.m., $20. :

Artistat: Number of miles that, if laid out, the books at the 2nd Annual International Literacy Day Book Sale, a publisher’s clearance sale with free seminars and workshops to raise funds for literacy in Quebec, at the Marché de l’Ouest (11600 de Salaberry, DDO), running from Sept. 5–29, would reach: 8 : :