2012

The Unbearable Weight of Memory

By Christine Korte The festival has come and gone. It’s hard to believe that its been over a week since our collective descent upon Toronto’s West end galleries and streets wrapped up. Each day, memories of the performances continue to be triggered, exploded and turned into personal meditations (at least in my, admittedly invested, case). …

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Ultimes moments du Festival

Christof Migone performing at OCADU

par Sylvie Ferre Procédons d’abord à un retour en arrière sur les quelques projets non évoqués précédemment. Samedi après –midi, l’amplification du son des micros tapés au sol par les assistants de Christof Migone redonnera vie au hall de l’Université de l’OCAD. Plus tard, dans la soirée, la performance du Birman,  Nyan Lin Htet, sera …

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“Nothing stays forever”

Márcio Carvalho performing at Mercer Union

By Christine Korte Portuguese/German artist Márcio Carvalho’s performance on Sunday afternoon, Now – an impossible presence, was an intricate navigation through time, memory, presence, and the impossibility of the now. The artist facilitated this navigation vis-à-vis a highly considered and layered engagement with the object world. Carvalho highlighted the shifting nature of the materials he used – material that disintegrates (a pear), material …

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Blue skies

By Randy Gledhill We’ll meet again Don’t know where, don’t know when But I know we’ll meet some sunny day Keep smiling through Just like you always do Till the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away Vera Lynn Well, the mess has been cleaned up. The gallery walls retouched. The rented and borrowed …

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Be careful what you listen for

Denis Romanovski perfroming on the TTC subway platform

By Randy Gledhill Another recently embraced performative strategy is the relational group participation formula. This usually occurs from a pre-determined meeting point at a certain time. Once the contributing audience has gathered the ‘artist’ describes the ‘instructional’ conceit and proceeds to lead the band of people on some kind of journey or adventure. 7A*11D presented …

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Strange Behaviour

Jeff Huckleberry performing at Mercer Union

By Christine Korte Jeff Huckleberry’s performance on Saturday night, Attempt at not being a walking fucking joke, was a meditation on the performance artist as a fragile or failing tour de force. Not only because Huckleberry was uncomfortably vulnerable and self-reflexive, but also because the relationship between his massive body, his even bigger wooden planks, …

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We are the people

Nyan Lin Htet performing at Mercer Union

By Randy Gledhill Simply dressed in black, seated on a step-stool cloaked in white. A large hind quarter of raw meat on his lap. Perhaps the haunch of a pig, or a person. Burmese artist Nyan Lin Htet, with needle and thread, diligently sews the dead flesh. He does so with a meticulous devotion. Sewing …

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Be here now

Nopawan Sirivejkul performing at Mercer Union

By Randy Gledhill There are several common trends and threads being employed by many artists in the current ‘performance festival’ format and genre. Surprisingly artists, offered free reign to present themselves in any way they wish, usually choose a formal gallery setting and time slot of about 30 minutes to parade their dog-and-pony show to …

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