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 celebrate Alain-Martin RICHARD, a distinguished artist whose work has significantly redefined the performative gesture in contemporary art. Moving beyond the familiar ideas of audience interaction, relational aesthetics and social sculpture, Richard has championed an art of actions that infiltrates the social, drawing audiences into art processes as part of their daily, lived experience. The hallmarks of his work are an intellectual rigour based on a keen understanding of visual art, theatre, and Western philosophy; a deep political commitment to interrogating the workings of power inherent in the processes of globalization; and a remarkable attunement to the poiesis of action.Click on his artist link to read more about his practice in his 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)
2018 Hank BULL (BC) and Sandra VIDA (AB)

We are honoured to once again have Henry Chan as our festival photographer. Henry Chan has been taking photographs for over 30 years. For the past 15 years, he has been documenting performance art in Toronto, including the activities of FADO Performance Art Centre, the 7a*11d International Performance Art Festival and the work of various performance artists. In 2018, Henry was invited to document the Performance Art Oslo festival in Norway. Henry has also documented events and exhibitions for various arts venues and organizations such as The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, The Gardiner Museum, The Blackwood, The Art Museum at the University of Toronto, Nuit Blanche (City of Toronto), SummerWorks and The Images Festival, among others. Henry’s photographs have appeared in various artist publications and print media, including Canadian Art, The Globe and Mail and The New York Times.

Peppercorn Imagine, a Toronto-based production studio focused on telling stories spearheaded by Alan Peng and Jeff Zhao, will be providing video documentation. Originating from studio arts backgrounds, Peng and Zhao focus on collaboration with others to create content and share unique stories and perspectives. Peppercorn Imagine produces video and photography content for web streaming, education and exhibition. Peng and Zhao have been a part of the 7a*11d’s documentation team for 6 years. Check out Peppercorn’s portfolio here: https://peppercorn.post.pro/. Thanks to our ongoing archival efforts, video documentation of this year’s performances will be available online soon after the festival ends.

This year, we we have commissioned two writers, Maandeeq Mohamed and Shalon T. Webber-Heffernan, to write in-depth post-festival essays. Maandeeq Mohamed is a writer engaging Black Studies and related cultural production. Her writing is featured in Real Life, C Magazine, and Canadian Art. Currently, Maandeeq is the Reviews Editor at C Magazine, as well as a PhD student in English and Gender Studies at the University of Toronto, where she is a SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier Doctoral Fellow. Shalon T. Webber-Heffernan is a writer, independent curator, and scholar. She is completing a PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies and recently held the position of Educator-in-Residence at the Blackwood Gallery. Some recent writing can be found in Canadian Theatre Review, Performance Matters, Theatre Research in Canada, and Comparative Media Arts Journal.

UPDATE: Unfortunately, Maandeeq Mohamed was unable to produce her article, so we are instead adding a new approach to responding to festival performances. Follow our Instagram (@7a11d) as our very own Kiki (a.k.a. Kiera Boult) takes viewers on a guided tour of the last festival. Don’t miss her incisive, unique perspective as she offers a series of Cold Reads and Hot Takes. One review a week every Monday between mid-January and mid-April, 2024. Kiera Boult is an interdisciplinary artist and performer from Hamilton, ON. Boult’s practice utilizes camp and comedy to skeptically address issues that surround the role and/or identity of the artist and the institution. Her most recent performance Hamilton’s My Lady (2022) was a part of the 2022 7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art and Supercrawl – Hamilton’s Music + Arts Festival. In 2019, Boult received the City of Hamilton Arts Award for Emerging Visual Artist. Her work has been exhibited at the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Art Gallery of Hamilton, and Artcite Inc. Windsor. She holds a BFA in Criticism and Curatorial Practice from OCAD University and is currently Vtape’s Submissions, Collections & Outreach Coordinator.

James Knott will be acting as our social media respondent, offering a daily feed of digital impressions on our various social media platforms (Instagram, twitter, Facebook). James Knott is an emerging, Toronto-based artist with a BFA in Integrated Media from OCAD University.  Their performance-based practice employs tactics of self-mythologizing, and auto-iconographic aestheticism, as a means to bridge personal narratives into communal ones. An alumnus of The Roundtable Residency, they’ve exhibited/performed at Xpace Cultural Centre, Trinity Square Video, the Toronto Feminist Art Conference,  the 7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art, the Art Gallery of Hamilton, and the AGO’s First Thursdays. They’ve received project and grant funding from The Artist Project Contemporary Art Fair, The National Arts Centre, The Ontario Arts Council, and The Canada Arts Council.

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!

The Theatre Centre ♿︎
1115 Queen Street West
Box Office webpage: https://tickets.theatrecentre.org/TheatreManager/1/online?event=0

Performances at the Theatre Centre are either free or Pay-What-You-Can (suggested: $5 Discount, $10 Regular or $20 Feeling Generous), tickets available from the Theatre Centre box office 2 hours before the evening or afternoon start time. All performances are ticketed individually; capacities may vary depending on the room. No unaccompanied minors. Advance registration via Calendly is required for Lucky Pierre’s In the Future Something Will Have Happened and Jessica Thompson’s DoubleBind. (Both are free events.)

Outdoor performances, artist talks, and virtual events are free.

The ways in which we feel it is ‘safe enough’ to gather have been in constant flux over these past two and half years. There’s still no one consensus on the best practices to balance our human need to come together and the very real risks of infection. For this festival, we are following the blanket rules currently in place at our venue, the Theatre Centre. These could and probably will change based on circumstances at the time of the festival. Currently, audience protocols include the following:

• Anyone planning to attend an indoor event will be expected to show their vaccine passport and provide contact tracing information
• All audience members will be required to wear masks unless they are in the café actively eating and/or drinking
• Event attendance is currently capped at 50% capacity

Full details of the theatre’s policy can be found on their website here.

For outdoor events, audience members are encouraged to follow masking and social distance practices.