Archives des interdisciplinary — MAI | Montréal, arts interculturels

a casual reconstruction + strike/thru

𝐀 𝐂𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 + 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐊𝐄 / 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐔 is a double-bill interdisciplinary encounter between two old friends from Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang/Montreal. Nadia Myre is a contemporary visual artist and Algonquin member of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinaabeg First Nation, and Johanna Nutter is a 7th generation euro-settler theatre maker and curator. Along with six invited participants, they explore the uncomfortable feelings around being Indigenous and/or non-Indigenous.

At the heart of 𝐀 𝐂𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 is a recorded dinner conversation between six people whose origins are Indigenous and “other,” about the politics of belonging within the confines of colonialism. A verbatim transcript is given to Settler participants, who re-enact the conversation in front of the audience. Oscillations of identity constructs ensue.

𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐊𝐄 / 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐔 is a playful exchange between Nadia and Johanna, incorporating elements raised by the reenactment with their own lived histories, in an always-evolving search for what a true act of conciliation might feel like and look like.

𝐀 𝐂𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 + 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐊𝐄 / 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐔 have gone from stage to screen and will now live in both worlds simultaneously. Using the plasticity of the digital environment to bridge Nadia and Johanna’s disciplines, and the accessibility of the virtual environment to reach out to a wider range of participants, they are preparing a LIVE hybrid to be presented onstage at the MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels) and online at the same time. June 3-5, 2021 at 3PM EST.

Nadia Myre et Johanna Nutter are recipients of MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels)’s Alliance program.

bijuriya’s drag cabaret

In 2020, drag artistry has gone digital! Without the Village cabarets and Montreal’s queer parties, our drag kings, queens, monsters and in-betweens have adapted their subversive art form for our screens. Bijuriya, our drag queen in residence, has produced an array of fascinating virtual numbers over the last few months. This Drag Cabaret will feature her favourite numbers, which engage with calypso, Bollywood (vintage, glamorous and/or psychedelic), baroque opera and… the odd vocalizations of imaginary creatures! Other surprise numbers will capture the effervescence and diversity of the local drag scene.

Très bilingual LIVE hosting by Bijuriya: Party in the comments section!

Gabriel Dharmoo is a recipient of MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels)’s Alliance program.

whip

whip is a 60 minute duet performed entirely in leather hoods, leaving performers blind for the duration of the performance. Inspired by the virtuosic head-whip motion found in a multitude of dance forms, the duality of the leather being both soft/hard are revealed through the work. Bodies explore images of consent through a range of physical touch, with the support of interactive new media light and originally composed sound design

A coproduction by FakeKnot and MAI (Montreal, arts interculturels), part of Queer Camp Performance.

sheuetamᵁ (suspended indefinitly)

[highlight background=”#e2011e” color=”#ffffff”]— Montreal is in red zone since October 01, 2020. This performance is suspended until further notice. See MAI’s latest updates related to COVID-19. — [/highlight]

Created by Innu interdisciplinary artist Soleil Launière, Sheuetamᵘ is a performative and auditive installation that unfolds continuously over 5 days. The piece convenes the presence of a two-spirit being, caught in conversation with its surrounding territory and technology.

The performer-forest summons a bodily state of porosity, and in-so-doing merges with the plant beings surrounding her. Thanks to the use of experimental technology that relies on bio-data sensors, her relationship to the territory is expressed through vocal chants, sounds, and images.

Interweaving the past, the present and the future, this powerful ritual-performance amplifies Indigenous presence and disrupts the narrative of capitalist and colonialist modernity. Audiences can immerse themselves in the piece at any time of the day, and come and go as they please.

zom-fam (suspended indefinitely)

[highlight background=”#e2011e” color=”#ffffff”]— Montreal is in red zone since October 01, 2020. The activities of MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels) are suspended until further notice. This performance is suspended indefinitely. See MAI’s latest updates related to COVID-19. —[/highlight]

ZOM-FAM is a solo performance by Kama La Mackerel that combines poetry, storytelling and dance. At once personal and political, ZOM-FAM (meaning “man-woman” in Mauritian Creole) narrates the story of a gender-creative child growing up in the 80s and 90s on the plantation is land of Mauritius. Multiply-voiced and imbued with complex storytelling, ZOM-FAM interweaves narratives that bring together ancestral voices, femme tongues, broken colonial languages and a tender queer subjectivity, all of which are grappling with the legacy of plantation servitude. Kama La Mackerel is a multi-disciplinary artist, writer, educator and cultural mediator from Mauritius who lives and loves in Tio’tia:ke (Montréal), Canada.

Kama La Mackerel is a recipient of MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels)’s Alliance program.

Produced with the support from the Government of Québec and the City of Montréal
as part of l’Entente sur le développement culturel de Montréal, and from the Canada
Council for the Arts

sonic & syllable series (cancelled-covid19)

Sound is all around us, even when seemingly silent.
The rotation of earth around its axis.
The rotation of earth around sun.
The sound of earthquakes.

Chewing.

The sound of art.
3 works that begin with listening.

white [ariane]

ARIANE is the daughter that Nancy (a South American woman) never had. Nancy wrote a diary for ARIANE while she was inside her womb without knowing that she would be a boy. 28 years after the birth, Nancy crossed over the Atlantic to reveal the existence of the diary to her son. ARIAH LESTER (Lester Arias) takes the words from his mother’s diary and creates songs out of them. A space of (in)betweenness: monstrosity / beauty, feminine / masculine, light / darkness, concert / theatre, opera / burlesque, ARIANE / LESTER / ARIAH.

dreamweaver

ANACHNID is a Montreal-based multidisciplinary artist of Oji-Cree and Mi’kmaq First Nations. She explores very different musical styles from soul to electro-pop to indie trap and is the first winner of the Indigenous Songwriter Award from SOCAN. We can hear her animal totem, the spider, as she interweaves bitingly accurate political response with straight up sass in her dance floor hits before sliding into soft aching romantic tracks. ANACHNID presents an intimate concert in tandem with a DJ and VJ. Circle up and get caught in this spider’s gorgeous web.

real’s fiction\dissonant_pleasures

This dance is a song we sing in order to be together. The song is intentionally simple to open access to even the most musically-timid body. The song needs us to listen to each other, to be sung in search of a semitonal-policality; “how close can we come without consolidating into one-ness?.”

This room is listening to us speak. It captures our whispers and secrets and redistributes them elsewhere and close-by. This floor invites us to lie. This work is almost real. This world we are looking for is not for us.

camille : un rendez-vous au-delà du visuel

Camille : un rendez-vous au-dela du visuel — © Laurence Gagnon Lefebvre

In this immersive work that circumvents our sense of sight, audience members follow the protagonist through a landscape of emotions and memories in which the intimate becomes tangible. This multisensory experience, developed for a visually-impaired audience, is accessible to all; we are invited, directly and delicately, into a space of discovery and encounter. Montreal-based interdisciplinary artist Audrey-Anne Bouchard has used her impairment as inspiration for developing a new artistic form. She brings together a reflection on the sensorial experience of dance, begun during her Master’s (Nice/Brussels), and the development of her practice as dramaturge.