2018 • 12th 7a*11d Festival
Welcome to the 7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art, active in Toronto since 1997.
The Toronto Performance Art Collective is pleased to announce the 12th 7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art, taking place from October 2 – 7, 2018 at the Theatre Centre and Sur Gallery. Since 1997, the biennial 7a*11d festival has specialized in offering the kind of absorbing and innovative performance work that you have to be there to fully appreciate. Once again we are proud to bring there here, as we celebrate our 21st year with a roster of 21 amazing artists packed into 6 intensive days of activities.
This year’s highlights include progressive and provocative works that give voice to beauty, humour, perseverance and intimacy in the face of human struggle. From the mystery of shadow puppets to the delicacy of private, one-on-one interactions; from spectacular eruptions of queer, dissenting and displaced identities to the epic glory of the everyday made strange; from thoughtful probings of place and history to the joyful and challenging maneuvers of forging new visions of community, 7a*11d promises to excite, engage and inspire local audiences.
Festival Artists
Schedule
Additional Programming
Parallel Event: Latin American Speakers Series
A talk by festival artist Elvira SANTAMARÍA - The Latin American Speakers Series seeks to articulate and discuss issues of identity and intercultural dynamics in contemporary Latin American art that have evolved in the globalized art scene.
2018 Publications and Multiples Launch
Thursday October 4, 2018 5 pm – 7 pmThe Theatre Centre An event of the 12th 7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art Every festival, many of our participating artists arrive with a treasure trove of publications, multiples, and other items that come out of or are produced alongside their performance practice. These could be hot-off-the-press …
Festival Reviews
RE:FRAMING by Francesco Gagliardi
By Francesco Gagliardi Over the last 21 years and 12 festivals, 7a*11d, Toronto’s International Festival of Performance Art, has presented performances in the streets, in galleries and storefronts, in repurposed schools and converted industrial spaces. This year the festival was housed for the first time in a theatre: the handsome new Theatre Centre multifunctional building …
Tender Considerations by Geneviève Wallen
By Geneviève Wallen • Januray 14 2019. • As a writer commissioned to report on this year’s 7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art, this was the first time I had attended the entire festival. My focus as a curator and the circles that I navigate are mainly rooted in the visual arts, and my experience of the works is informed by my education and positionality as a cis straight Black woman, able bodied, Francophone, and a settler on this land. My curatorial practice focuses on the manifestation of healing spaces in the arts, as well as the ways in which art can galvanize communities to co-create pockets of collective care.
Performance Art Daily
Performance Art Daily is a lunchtime artist talk series featuring discussions with and among many of the festival’s visiting artists and organizers. This is an opportunity for the festival audience to meet and engage with our invited artists. Find out what issues drive these artists’ work. Talk about performance art’s hot-button issues. Learn more about how performance art happens and is supported in other communities. The talks will be recorded live and archived online. Sessions from previous festivals (2010-2016) can be found on our website as well as our YouTube channel:
2018 Parallel Event: Latin American Speakers Series
Elvira SANTAMARÍA talk
Tuesday October 2 7 pm
Presented by LACAP (Latin American-Canadian Art Projects) in partnership with 7a*11d.
A talk by festival artist Elvira SANTAMARÍA
VIDEO Peter Riddihough ©Latin American-Canadian Art Projects
Performance Art Daily October 3, 2018: Sandra Vida, Art, Life, & Community
Wednesday October 3 Noon
Sandra VIDA
Art, Life, & Community
A presentation of some of the artist's performative video works.
Performance Art Daily October 4, 2018: Hank Bull, Reception of Electricity
Thursday October 4 Noon
Hank BULL
Reception of Electricity
A chronicle of Hank Bull’s art partnership with Patrick Ready under the banner of HP, setting their exploits in the context of the history of electricity.
Performance Art Daily October 5, 2018: Arahmaiani and François Morelli
Friday October 5 Noon
ARAHMAIANI
François MORELLI
A discussion with two established artists who work across disciplines.
Performance Art Daily October 6, 2018: Thirza Jean Cuthand, Louise Liliefeldt, and Cindy Mochizuki in conversation with Paul Couillard
Saturday October 6 Noon
Thirza Jean CUTHAND
Louise LILIEFELDT
Cindy MOCHIZUKI
Moderator Paul COUILLARD
A lively panel with three remarkable Canadian artists.
Venues
The Theatre Centre ♿︎
1115 Queen Street West
All talks are free. Performances at the Theatre Centre are either free [(F)NOR, Cindy Mochizuki, François Morelli] or Pay-What-You-Can, tickets available from the Theatre Centre box office 2 hours before the evening or afternoon start time. Suggested minimum donation for performances is $10. All performances are ticketed individually; capacities may vary depending on the room. No unaccompanied minors. Registration required for Cindy Mochizuki’s performance (see details on her artist page).
To support access, we invite those within the Deaf, Mad and disability identified communities to register for Barak adé Soleil’s a series of movements [Toronto] via an Eventbrite link. Tickets will be held under your name at the Box office. Tickets are Pay-What-You-Can. You may pay for the tickets at the Box office.
ASL Vlog – Barak adé Soleil event announcement (produced by Deaf Spectrum)
Sur Gallery ♿︎
39 Queens Quay East Suite 100
Elvira Santamaría’s performance is free.
Éminences Grises
Noun (pl.) persons who exercise great power or influence, secretly or unofficially
Inaugurated in 2002, the festival’s Éminence Grise designation highlights our commitment to bringing forward a lived history of performance art by presenting the work of key Canadian artists. We celebrate artists who have helped to establish, shape, and embody performance art in Canada.
This year we are honoured to feature two pioneering multimedia artists who are known both for their innovative art practices and for their instrumental roles in fostering Canada’s artist-run centres. These are artists who have contributed to the development of a strong international artist network while remaining rooted in distinctly regional cultural communities. Hank BULL is based in Vancouver, and Sandra VIDA is based in Calgary.
Click on their artist links for a more in-depth consideration of their practices in their own words.
previous Éminences
2002 Bruce BARBER (NS)
2004 Cheryl L’HIRONDELLE (SK)
2006 Rita MCKEOUGH (NS)
2008 Robin POITRAS (SK) and Glenn LEWIS (BC)
2010 Michael FERNANDES (NS) and Sylvie TOURANGEAU (QC)
2012 Margaret DRAGU (BC) and Nobuo KUBOTA (ON)
2014 Berenicci HERSHORN (ON) and Clive ROBERTSON (ON)
2016 Elizabeth CHITTY (ON) and DOYON/DEMERS (QC)
Festival Eyes and Ears
This year, we are doing documentation a bit differently. Rather than providing a textual recap of the previous day’s events on our blog, we have commissioned two writers, Francesco Gagliardi and Geneviève Wallen, to write in-depth post-festival essays. To get the flavour of what is happening on a daily basis, we have invited jes sachse to be our social media respondent, who promises to provide us with a daily feed of digital impressions on Instagram. In addition, our curatorial intern, Shalon T. Webber-Heffernan, will manage daily reminders and live updates on our various other platforms (twitter, Facebook and our web blog).
We are honoured to once again have Henry Chan as our festival photographer, and Alan Peng as our videographer (along with Jeff Zhao). Thanks to our ongoing archival efforts, video documentation of this year’s performances will be available online soon after the festival ends.
Follow us on twitter @7a11d for live updates on the festival, and remember to hashtag your tweets with #7a11d to share your thoughts and photos with others!
