Inspired by the intimacy, vulnerability and a moment of contemplation that live performance has the capacity to deliver in facing the void of our impermanence, we open the building for unexpected encounters with performance, nuanced and enchanting, in our continuing research in contemporary storytelling.
We have invited performance artists to interpret spaces within the circulation pathways of the PHI Centre and engage with visitors in unexpected ways against a backdrop of media and sound programming and contemporary art installations.
The context of performance is to reflect on the time, space and interaction with an audience within the architectural framework and operations of the Centre. A space where fiction comes to life right in front of you in an attempt to formulate the human condition without explanation.
New season of performances
Discover the artists in the new Embodied Spaces program for the new season, Fall 2024.
POSTPONED*:
Tess Martens (She/her)
PVA (polyvinyl acetate) GLUE ME!
*Please note that this performance has been postponed. We will provide the new dates shortly.
*This performance contains full nudity.
Tess Martens, currently based in Guelph, Ontario, graduated from the University of Waterloo with a Master of Fine Art focusing on performance art in 2018. In her art practice, personal experiences are re-contextualized through performances. Humour is often used in her performances to invite and engage the audience.
Photo: Phi Doan
OCTOBER 26 & 27 2 PM TO 3 PM:
Ianna Book (She/her)
EROS CIRCUITRY
Ianna Book is a multidisciplinary artist based in Montreal, QC. She pursued her studies in fine arts at Cégep du Vieux-Montréal and in visual and media arts at the Université du Québec à Montréal. Her work has been showcased in various events in Canada and internationally, including the Leslie & Lohman Museum in New York and the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum. Book's work is rooted in a critical aesthetic that challenges the norms of conservative landscapes and immobility, making space for new cultural elements. By reconfiguring the setting and various aspects of the performance, she encourages the viewer to question their own conditions and to remember that they are a social actor capable of progress.
Photo: Ianna Book
NOVEMBER 30 2 PM TO 3 PM & 4 PM TO 5 PM:
Nicola Giannini (He/him) + Architek Percussion
EXPANSION
Composer and sound artist Nicola Giannini collaborates with Architek Percussion to present Expansion, a performance incorporating ice blocks as sound instruments. Expansion embodies the tension between the human desire for control and the unpredictability of natural phenomena, using ice as a material with highly unpredictable sonic, physical and visual properties. Expansion emphasizes the physicality of sound, inviting the audience to actively participate and immerse themselves in this experience.
Photo: Jonathan Cortes Suarez
DECEMBER 28 & 29
4 PM TO 6 PM:
Fili 周 Gibbons (We/they) + Paloma Dawkins (She/they)
WHITE RUSHES
White Rushes is a ritual music and visual performance drawing inspiration from the ancient Chinese divination system of the Yijing (‘Book of Changes’) The Yijing expresses the idea that change observed in the environment is a reflection of change in oneself. As a literal expression of this concept, the cellist —dressed in white — becomes a moving canvas for visual patternings inspired by nature and rendered through a real time engine, which themselves are in continuous flux. The piece revisits an ancient search for meaning within changing natural environmental patterns, blurring the distinctions of technology and natural systems.
Discover the artists who performed in the PHI Centre spaces for the Embodied Spaces series.
CHEREPAKA
Performance-based installation
Cherepaka means turtle in Russian. Composed of a shell and flesh, the turtle carries within itself the duality between eternity and ephemerality. Cherepaka depicts the death of a turtle and echoes the tension that inhabits human beings between their quest for infinity and the mortality of their animal flesh.
The approach is inspired by paintings by Francis Bacon in order to work on the “logic of sensation” (Deleuze) focusing mainly on the concept of the "Figure" and animal becoming.
Just like Cherepaka in its version of stage representation, this sculptural body seeks to deconstruct the spectacularity of contortion as well as that of the living spectacle, in order to make this acrobatic language a sensitive one, a material for representation.
LABOS EXPLO
Labos eXplo is a distribution platform for emerging artists, rooted in accessibility and benevolence, which recognizes the importance of interdisciplinarity. We want to support and help up-and-coming artists, and act as a springboard for those who are not yet well known. We want to showcase your innovative ideas, which sometimes find it hard to find a place in contemporary programming.
This Labos eXplo showcase includes 3 distinct performances by artists Laura Côté-Bilodeau, Rozenn Lecomte and Olivier Charron & Charbel Hachem.
Laura Côté-Bilodeau (She/her)
In 5 years, a lot can happen; Graduation from a theatre school, First professional contracts as an actress, A pandemic, The end of the world, 1 child, 2 children, 3 children, With the hope of a better world.
Rozenn Lecomte (She/her)
Rozenn Lecomte is a dance artist based in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal. She presents her creations in various venues by staging rebellious bodies, and she organizes and participates in many underground events as a choreographer, performer and artistic director.
Photo: Pénélope Ducharme
Olivier Charron (He/him) et Charbel Hachem (He/they)
Olivier Charron and Charbel Hachem are multidisciplinary artists based in Montreal. Trained in theatrical performance, the duo was born out of a shared passion for music, chess and human behaviour. For their first collaboration, the duo invite us to take part in a ritualized performance about money.
Olivier Charron / Photo: Mélanye Bernier
Charbel Hachem / Photo: Mélanye Bernier
SEVEN
Winnie Ho (Superhova) is an interdisciplinary dance performance artist and curator who was born in Hong Kong, and currently resides in Montréal. Her work embraces multiple disciplines including immersive installations, sculpture and dance. Weaving in various materials onto her body and inventing queer folklore/mythologies have been the fore-front of her dance making practice. Presently, she is working with notions of grief, pleasure and play as both a personal ceremonial practice and a public performance. Winnie was awarded the Laureate of the Power Prix 2022 scholarship award at La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse in Montréal. She was also the recipient of the 2017 Danceweb Scholarship Program at Impulstanz Festival in Vienna. Her latest solo work aWokening was premiered at Danse-cité in 2023. aWokening is an immersive sensorial experience of sound, smell and touch over metallic landscapes.
AUTOTOMY
Based in Montreal, Lila-Mae Talbot and Sara Harton are two dance artists who have been performing on the international scene for nearly 20 years.
During the summer of 2021, they undertook a co-creation project entitled Autotomy through which they discovered the power and extent of their collaborative work.
Questioning and pushing back the frameworks and structures in which we evolve, these two women have fun in malleable propositions, enriched by its infinite possibilities.
Marcella França is a Brazilian multidisciplinary artist based in Greater Montréal. Her practice blends contemporary dance, digital technologies, and visual art, expanding artistic conventions to create performances, digital arts, immersive installations, and public art, addressing decolonial, ecofeminist, and immigration issues. Marcella has exhibited in notable galleries and festivals such as Art Souterrain (MTL), SAT (MTL), Montreal en Lumière Festival (MTL), Optica Festival (ES/FR), Amazonia MAPP (BR), as well as La Centrale Powerhouse (MTL), Articule (MTL), Agrégat (MTL), OI Futuro (RJ, BR), and Carmichael Gallery (CA, USA).
Photo: Fernando Belote / Photo editing and direction: Marcella França
BRAILLER COMME UNE MADELEINE
Catherine Desjardins-Béland develops her corporality through circus arts and somatic practices. She uses and deconstructs codes inherent to it such as risk, prowess, and rhythm, but her proposals bear little resemblance to them. Brailler comme une Madeleine is a work that is both personal and universal. It tells a story of family, decomposing flesh, and profound inner peace.
Photo: Emilie Poirier
KINSCAPE
Established in 2014, LA TRESSE is a laterally arranged organization whereby the three founding members co-choreograph and perform physically driven works that explore interdependence and the transporting power of imagination. Embodying a connection to pleasure, they craft contrasting worlds using imagery and archetypal symbolism, guiding audiences to places both familiar and unknown. With a commitment to intuitive decision-making and collaborative listening, their repertoire includes trios, ensemble compositions, and commissioned pieces.
KINSCAPE, conceived exclusively for the PHI Centre, was performed and created by: Erin O'Loughlin, Matthew Quigley and Laura Toma.
Photo: Do Phan Hoi / Pictured: Geneviève Boulet, Erin O'Loughlin & Laura Toma
The PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art is pleased to present Oma-je, the largest North American exhibition to date by acclaimed French artist Laure Prouvost
