VIVArium ! : A summer program of micro-workshops 

Rose de la Riva, improvisation performative pour un mur d’usine, collectif des Autoworkshops sur la route, Détroit (USA), 2018

In partnership with Skol, VIVA! presents a peer-based program of training activities offered by artists working in the discipline of action art. At the intersection of skills sharing and professional development, this initiative aims to foster the development of the personal practice of participating artists and, more broadly, of the performance art community. Taking place on the first three Tuesdays and Thursdays in August, VIVArium’s program of micro-workshops is a multifaceted learning experience!     

Logistical information 

All the workshops will take place at the Centre des arts actuels Skol (space 314 at the Belgo, 372 Ste-Catherine O.), though some activities will invite participants to work in public space. The Belgo building is partially wheelchair accessible (find out more about the building’s accessibility here). 

While individual workshops will be given in French or English, activities will nurture a bilingual and collaborative environment. Whispered translation support is available upon request.    

All workshops are free to attend, but can only accommodate a limited number of participants. As such, registration is required and participation will be confirmed on a first come, first served basis. 
To register for a workshop please write to : vivarium.art.action@gmail.com

Programming

Sous cette jupe et derrière ce sourire, 2023. Photo: Adriana Garcia Cruz 

Pilar Escobar
Speaking and singing like breathing 

Tuesday August 6, 2024
9am – 12pm

(workshop given in French)

In this micro-workshop, participants will learn about the importance of breathing properly and having good physical posture to produce vocal sounds. Through individual and group exercises we will explore how movement, gesture, intention, and imagination are the driving forces behind producing sounds, developing full awareness of what we want to express, and conveying emotions with complete freedom, confidence, and power.

By drawing on my experiences in Colombia and Canada, and through rituals in which the voice plays an important role, I explore an intimate relationship with imposed silence, an expression of the violence inherent in patriarchal oppression. Indissociable from my life, video and performance act as witnesses to the mournings and rebirths that constitute me. The rituals I propose seek self-soothing as well as the reinforcement of my power and agency.

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Is it safe to love you, 2020. Photo: Christian Adelante

Fanny Aboulker
Blurring Language: how can we use the strategy of vagueness to thwart gender binaries in (French) language and imagine a post-gender world?

Thursday August 8, 2024
10am – 2pm

(workshop given in French)

Discover how vagueness can become a strategy for influencing language and facilitating the imagination of a post-gender society. This micro-workshop will combine practical and playful exercises, structured conversations, and writing exercises. The workshop will explore the issues of gender in language, in particular French, but participants will be able to use the language of their choice.

As a visual artist, I am developing a multidisciplinary practice that combines workshops, lecture-performance, writing, weaving and marshmallow sculptures. Currently a doctoral student at UQAM, I explore how to transform language in an attempt to subvert its binaries through a hybrid format combining lecture-performance and group activities. My workshops combine theory, creativity, and play, materialising metaphors to think through practice and generate new ideas.

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Faire son cirque, 2023. Photo: LEGS Rimouski

Sébastien Goyette Cournoyer
Humour in action

Tuesday August 13, 2024
9am – 12pm

(workshop given in French)

This micro-workshop explores humor as a creative motor in action art. In a friendly atmosphere, discover different methods such as playful misappropriation of objects, double play, and repetitive failure, each inspired by various genres of humour such as deadpan, burlesque, and tragicomic. The workshop will alternate between group discussions and practical exercises, and collectively explore the potential of humour as a tool of resistance and emancipation in the face of social norms and relationships of domination. 

Sébastien Goyette Cournoyer is an interdisciplinary artist who has been practicing action art for almost 10 years. In their current research-creation, they explore how humour can be used to criticize social and cultural norms. Coming from a rural and working-class background, they draw on their own experiences to question the effects of masculine and heteronormative socialization. Doomed to failure, their actions demonstrate a vulnerability that they propose as a potential solution to patriarchal and capitalist values. 

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Sense of Space, Good Will, and Energy, 2023. Photo: Maria Sanchez Martín

Marcela Szwarc
Using poetry and manifesto in collective performance

Thursday August 15, 2024
10am – 1pm

(workshop given in English)

Inspired by political theatre, puppetry, and collective performance, this workshop will bring participants to spontaneously engage with a performative ‘persona’ or ‘archetype’, through the use of the written word, gesture, and simple mask-making. Writing individual ‘impulse’ manifestos, participants will be encouraged to find parallels with one another’s words, and play some improvisational games and exercises to construct a collective piece.

Marcela Szwarc is a Polish-American multidisciplinary artist, illustrator, and designer working in Montreal and New York. Their visual work exists at the intersections of ecofeminist thought, magical realism, and Slavic beliefs in apotropaic symbolism, expressed through media such as puppetry, drawing, painting, writing, and self-publishing. 

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Performance invisible n° 249 (Tomber de haut), 2021. Reenactment de Helena Almeida. Voar (To Fly). Photo: Martin Vinette

Steve Giasson
Back to the ABC

Tuesday August 20, 2024
9am – 1pm

(workshop given in French)

BREACHED / SPLIT / OBSTRUCTED / AFFRONTED / SHATTERED / SPRAYED / MASHED /
GREASED / DIVERTED / MUCKED 
1970

What is this enigmatic text? Is it a poem? An idea or an instruction for creating a work of art? Can it be used in action art? And if so, how can it be put into practice? In this micro-workshop, Steve Giasson will attempt to answer these questions. The history of the action score, its evolution and its use in performance art will be discussed. Numerous examples will be presented and participants will be invited to perform them. A Fluxus Concert is also on the programme! 

Steve Giasson is a conceptual artist and a  PhD graduate in Art Studies and Practices (UQAM). His appropriationist practice has been presented in  fifteen countries around the world, in the context of fourteen solo exhibitions, including PERFORMANCES INVISIBLES (DARE-DARE, 2015-2016) and NOUVELLES PERFORMANCES INVISIBLES (Le Lieu, 2020-2021), as well as numerous group shows. 

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Photo: Radio-Canada / Jean-Claude Taliana

Thomas Duret
Squad for the transformation of reality 

Thursday August 22, 2024
1pm – 4pm

(workshop given in French)

Since public space is no longer truly public and our capacity to transform it is limited, it’s time we formed a squad to remedy this alarming situation. Participants in this micro-workshop will carry out simple tasks aimed at creating disruption in social space. However, no municipal by-laws or laws will be broken. The Brigade will move around and intervene as discreetly as possible.

Thomas Duret/”jambon humide restant” explores, from a queer and holistic perspective, how the intimate and collective dimensions of our lives evolve and become contaminated. In his work, he uses a psychological or societal mechanism as a starting point and, through the spectrum of power dynamics, explores their impact on the individual and the collective. He focuses on the creation of new scenic forms and writings through a collaborative, interdisciplinary and socially inclusive approach.