Cantastoria
Un opéra dessiné

August 27, 28, 29, 2010 (Friday, Saturday, Sunday)
7:30 pm — 141a, rue Ann, Montréal

An old stable. The audience enters at dusk. A room within a room. A row of women working at a table. A lightbox projecting textures, spectres, elderstories. A figure seen handling a tree in a jar. The smell of spices coincides with a certain sound and we all climb down.

Poster / Affiche
click to viewCantastoria explores the intersections of drawing and performance, through the layering of live presence and projected tableaux. The piece unfolds around an architectural structure I climb onto and inside of to animate drawings and shadow play. From this shelter narratives are recounted, imagined, or uttered in another language. Cantastoria is the culmination of years of research that began with the serendipity of encountering two different, yet related Malinas: the first Malina is a novel by the Austrian writer Ingeborg Bachmann; the second Malina is the word for confined spaces where Jews hid in Lithuania during WWll. This performance combines sources from history, literature, and personal archaeology, transposing these various strands to the contemporary context of a building we could call a relic.

sound: Christian Richer
performers: Soufïa Bensaïd, Rachel Echenberg, Lou Nelson, Victoria Stanton, and Vida Simon

– –

Une vieille écurie. Entre chien et loup : l’auditoire faisant son entrée. Une rangée de femmes travaillant à une table. Une pièce lumineuse projetant des textures, des spectres, des « sages-histoires ». Un personnage maniant un arbre dans un bocal. L’odeur d’épices coïncide avec un son particulier et nous descendons tous.

Cantastoria étudie à fond les croisements du dessin et de la performance, à travers la superposition d’une présence en direct et des tableaux projetés. La pièce met en relief une structure architecturale sur laquelle je peux monter et dans laquelle j’anime des dessins et réalise des jeux d’ombres. À partir de ce refuge, des histoires sont racontées, imaginées ou murmurées dans une autre langue. Cantastoria est le point culminant de nombreuses années de recherche qui ont débuté lors d’une rencontre fortuite : la découverte de deux Malinas, différentes et pourtant reliées. La première Malina est le titre d’un roman de l’auteure autrichienne Ingeborg Bachmann ; la seconde Malina est le mot désignant des espaces clos où les Juifs en Lituanie se cachaient pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Cette performance conjugue des sources provenant de l’histoire et de la littérature, ainsi que d’une archéologie personnelle, en transposant ces divers brins au contexte contemporain d’un immeuble que nous pouvons appeler une relique.

son : Christian Richer
performeuses: Soufïa Bensaïd, Rachel Echenberg, Lou Nelson, Victoria Stanton, and Vida Simon

Inklings

gestes, murmures, ruminations

a book of drawings by Vida Simon

Available at
Drawn and Quarterly
211 Bernard Ouest
Montreal, Qc. H2T 2K5
(514) 279-2224
www.drawnandquarterly.com

The idea for this book came about as I was leafing through my journals from over the years and felt compelled to extract drawings from the sea of words. But then having done that, sometimes the words slipped back in when it seemed necessary to provide a glimpse of the context. The selected drawings range from sketches created for, or after performances, to remembering dreams, to observing a teacup. Inklings seeks to honour the fleeting processes that are usually kept private, transposing fragments of many books into one intimate book.

Inklings was printed in an edition of 500, of which 100 copies were numbered and signed.
Published with the assistance of the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Quebec.
ISBN 978-2-9811503-0-1
Black and white, 96 pages, 5 x 6 inches
$20.00

Biography
Vida Simon's work has been presented internationally, in a diverse range of contexts — galleries, hotel rooms, storefronts, theatres, rooftops, and books. Her work incorporates various media, combined to form site-responsive installations and performances. Linking all aspects of her practice is a passion for drawing, a form that most directly expresses her interests in visual storytelling, materiality, and embodiment. Her performances often foreground the ephemeral gesture of live drawing. Vida Simon lives in Montreal.