New article about indigenous film and identity politics: métissages

Please read and distribute the my regular column freely. My newest article, an opinion piece about a recent film, is at http://zouchmagazine.com/mesnak-a-first-trilingual-aboriginal-made-feature-length-film-teaches-us-many-things/. Enjoy.

Education through art

Educated people (or people educated through art, including “students” and “artists”) can learn to know their agency and power (to change their conditions) through art/life.

My words here roughly follow the ideals of the late anarchist, art historian and pedagogue Herbert Read.

HOPE

Election week, Ireland, Feb 2012
Performance-action by Julie Fiala and Eve Vaughan in Dublin;
in memory of Jim Larkin’s “peoples” politics on labour rights; photo Michael Stephens.

Thoughts on Education: schools (for graduants everywhere)

The best schools are those where students get a say in the direction of their education. The best schools are those that consider that ability and education are the real privileges. The best schools are those where profs, however they may be, support students but also themselves as a coherent community of individuals.

Through my experience in Canada, Ireland and the UK, I noticed this especially at schools where they hire the best teachers, who happen to be great artists - rather than great artists who teach because they need cash.

Lastly, the schools with the best students (current and graduate) attract the best teachers. Everybody likes good students.

But the best schools are free - free content and free form(s) - with or without walls or even “teachers,” in the authoritative or autocratic senses.

Montréal 22 mars: On avance, on avance, on n’arrête pas.

DEVANT CETTE INJUSTICE, NE RECULONS PAS!

This is an example of what reclaiming space can really mean in practice. I was there at the front of the first heap. What a privileged witnessing. Thank you.

Photo: Julie Fiala (22 mars 2012)

New performance documentation

Poet-performer, Carolyne Bolduc (left), and me (right) performing reciprocal (duo) tableaux vivants, as part of a multi-tableaux work developed by artist-curator Marie-Claude Gendron (Québec) for the disused Soleil (newspaper) offices in Québec / City.

27 & 28 January 2012

Presented as part of the event, “On s’graisse la patte (pendant trois jours).”

Curated by Cornet3boules and Gendron.

Images by Emmanuel Duret.

Announcement: New column on Zouch

I have a new regular journal column at Zouch Magazine. Their concept (online daily journal with selected print publications) was originally founded by the bilingual poet, and man of many anarchisms and intelligences, Salvatore W. Delle Palme (with Jeff Campagna, Creative Director | Founder). I have known Sal since our high school days with my brother, Eric, at the arts “academy” called De La Salle in Ottawa but near Hull, Québec. Zouch is very current and, at present, mostly read in the US and UK (although Canadian content is being produced). This journal is a good resource for students and all interested in contemporary art, society, music, activism, literature and politics.

If you would like, please read my debut article at http://zouchmagazine.com/performance-art-cultural-activism-and-politics-quebec-to-belfast/.

Through regular articles, Julie Fiala traces her story from Ontario to Québec, via the UK and Ireland. After leaving Ontario for Britain in 2004 to pursue graduate studies in Fine Arts, she returned to Québec City, where she lives since the fall of 2011. Her column reviews currents in art, politics and cultural activism, focusing on Ontario, Québec, Britain and Ireland. Please also see biographic info and links at http://zouchmagazine.com/writers.

Best wishes and thank you for circulating.

PS. Below are images from the Gendron tableau vivant (performance by Carolyne Bolduc and I), which is described in the article. These “lost” images were recently and joyously retrieved. Hurray!!!

Blue, Blanc, Rouge (150 metres through snow and wind in the basin of la rivière Saint- Charles at Limouilou, Québec/City)

Performance-action 

Alain- Martin Richard

Julie Fiala

29 janvier 2012 january 29

9.00-9.50 am Pointe-aux-Lièvres

Documentation: Emmanuelle Duret, Simon Lambert, Guy Sioui Durand and Julie Fiala Merci aussi aux autres témoins: Dominique Rainville et Andrée-Anne Gauthier

The Montreal Bleu Blanc Rouge (Red White and Blue in English) are better known as les Canadiens de Montréal. These are also the colours of the Great British (and French) tricolour flags.

Score

(1) Mark the territory at start (and, eventually, finish)

(2) Create a fine line with equal measures of blue and red yarn at intervals for a distance measuring the entire lenght of the yarn (blue plus red), which is approximately 150 m

(3) Move continuously, transitioning as necessary like an iceberg gliding counter-current over the ice, snow and against the wind.

Props / Accessoires Two performers, blue and red yarns, a drill, two red dowels, snow, coloured costumes.

Performance en action. DEMAIN, dimanche - 9:00 à 10.00 AM – sur la Rivière St-Charles, Limoilou, Québec, Québec.

Performance en action.  DEMAIN, dimanche - 9:00 à 10.00 AM – sur la Rivière St-Charles, Limoilou, Québec, Québec. Suivez la rue de la Briqueterie (entre la 9ième et la 10 ième rue sur la 1ière avenue à Limoilou. Arrivé à la rivière, il y a un observatoire comme lieu idéal pour voir l’action. Artistes Julie Fiala (QC-UK) et Alain-Martin Richard (QC) développeront une action politique en couleur translatant des questions d’identités poreuses (colonisé(e)s et, en même temps, colonisateur(e)s) universelles mais précises. La performance « art-action » ce déroulera dans le creux de la rivière, (ma) face première dans la neige. Venez voir, et, peut-être, patiner après! Cette performance est créée en solidarité avec les pratiques et concepts du collectif de performance, Bbeyond, dont Julie est encore membre à Belfast en Irlande du nord. Maintenant installée à Québec, elle travaille à fortifier des liens identitaires, artistiques et communautaires entre le Québec francophone et l’Irlande du nord colonisé.

Il y a plus de 88 murs de paix (barrières de séparations entre communautés religieuses/politiques) dans la ville de Belfast. Cette performance est développée par Richard et Fiala (qui ont tous deux des liens avec la ville et le collectif) à un temps où l’on parle sérieusement d’abolir ces murs après plusieurs décennies de séparations physiques et architecturales, ajoutant aux divisions psychologiques qui sont certainement plus profondes.

My father always told me

Mon père ma toujours dit qu’aujourd’hui c’était le premier jour du reste de ma vie. Il avait raison et c’est toujours vrai, aujourd’hui, et espérons pour nous tous que pour demain aussi. My father always told me that today was the first day of the rest of my life. That was good advice. Today, and hopefully tomorrow too.

The 17th of January is Art’s Birthday. A friend of mine aptly reminded me that, “Everyday is Art’s Birthday.” I think that she is right. So belated art’s birthday it is, and to/for everyone. I do not think that the late Robert Filliou (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Filliou) would mind if I declared today (and tomorrow) days of art. Peut-être le lendemain aussi.

I have been a member of the performance art collection called Bbeyond since November 2010. They support performance art practices in Northern Ireland and link with similar minds (and bodies) internationally. Their non-hierachical method of working together across cultures, ages, practices and religions in Belfast continues to be an inspiration. 

On Art’s Birthday the collective wrote and circulated the following:

http://monthlyperformanceartmeetingsnireland.blogspot.com/

My feeling as I look through the window this morning, out onto the snow and river, through the flowers on our window sill, is that life can be artful - if and when it allows to see oneself and the world carefully.

View from my window in Québec City, 7.00 am, 19 January 2012

Bbeyond members James King, Christoff Gillen and Julie Fiala singing sounds to the city (As if a “happy birthday” to art)

Performance Monthly for Culture Night, Belfast (NI), sunset, 23 September 2011

I was also recording the moment as my contribution to Prefix, which was a festival of performance art at phone booths on Bridge Street in Belfast (for Catalyst Art; see http://www.catalystarts.org.uk/about/)

Photo: Jordan Hutchings