The Department of Fine Arts and University of Waterloo Art Gallery (UWAG) presents an on-campus week of performance art co-curated by Ivan Jurakic and Bojana Videkanic. This Could Be The Place invites artists to respond to the idea of borders using a vintage Airstream trailer as a staging area. Look for the Airstream trailer on campus between the Dana Porter Arts Library, Arts Lecture Hall, and Modern Languages.
This Could Be The Place returns this year and uses the complexity of borders as a framing principle to explore aspects of culture, identity, gender, migration, and indigeneity. Border is a curious word that is alternately used to describe a geo-political demarcation or a decorative element. It is a permeable space where people and ideas intersect or are kept apart. Things happen at borders: crossings, connections, separations, reunions, transgressions. Lines are drawn. Borders blur in the wake of our increasingly globalized culture. At the moment, we are experiencing an unprecedented movement of goods and people underlined by the ongoing refugee crisis. The artists will present relevant, topical projects over the course of five days, followed by a closing symposium.
This Could Be The Place has been made possible with the generous support of the Region of Waterloo ARTS FUND and the Canada Council for the Arts. This Could Be The Place is a co-presentation of the University of Waterloo Art Gallery and UW Fine Arts, in partnership with CAFKA.16: What we do together that we can’t do alone and Critical Media Lab.
Performances:
Monday
May
30 -
noon
ANDREW
McPHAIL
-
Insecure
Ts
Insecure Ts uses handcraft to make ironic wearable artworks that function as expressions of personal anxiety. Words like REJECT or FLUNKEE are hand-sewn by the artist using glittering sequins on black T-shirts that are ready-to-wear by participants over the course of the event. // Andrew McPhail is a Hamilton-based multidisciplinary artist who draws, paints, makes sculpture and performative installations. He has exhibited across Canada and is the co-director of Hundred Dollar Gallery in Hamilton.
Tuesday
May
31
-
noon
NAHED
MANSOUR
-
SAFE
SAFE is a performance installation that explores the relationship between experiences of migration and feelings of home and safety. By drawing on and referencing the game of baseball, the piece mediates on North American notions of belonging and exclusion. // Nahed Mansour is a multidisciplinary video, installation, and performance artist. She currently resides in Toronto and is the program coordinator at the South Asian Visual Arts Centre.
Wednesday
June
1
-
noon
VESSNA
PERUNOVICH
-
Shifting
Shelter
Shifting Shelter is a durational performance involving the assembly of household items and furniture into transitory shelters that explore notions of transition and migration, poetically reflecting on the ongoing migrant refugee crisis. // Vessna Perunovich is a Toronto-based visual artist who works in a variety of media ranging from sculpture and painting to video and performance. Her art and projects have been exhibited widely across Canada and Europe.
Thursday
June
2
-
noon
FRANCISCO-FERNANDO
GRANADOS
-
NEW
PRIMARIES:
fill
in
NEW PRIMARIES: fill in is an action-based, site-specific engagement that addresses contemporary experiences of migration and queerness using conceptual and formal strategies that challenge and shift perceptions regarding the stability of identity categories. // Francisco-Fernando Granados is a Toronto-based artist whose process-based practice extends into a range of media including installation, video, text, and drawing. He teaches as sessional faculty at OCAD University and University of Toronto Scarborough.
Friday
June
3
-
noon
LORI
BLONDEAU
&
ADRIAN
STIMSON
-
Belle
&
Boy’s:
Savage
Buffalo
Happy
Hour
Belle & Boy’s: Savage Buffalo Happy Hour harkens to a time when Buffalo were savage and the people were happy. Savage Buffalo Happy Hour will be a space where anything can happen: photo ops, interpretive dance, indigenous critique, six-gun justice, and much more. Like spectacles of the past, Belle and Boy recreate a variety show that will shock, rock, and tickle the Nation. // Lori Blondeau is a Cree/Saulteaux/Metis artist and performer, and executive director of Tribe Inc. in Saskatoon. She is sometimes also known as Belle Sauvage. Adrian Stimson is a member of the Siksika (Blackfoot) Nation and is a multidisciplinary artist and performer based in Saskatoon. He is sometimes also known as Buffalo Boy.
Saturday
June
4 -
11:00
AM
CAFKA.16
SYMPOSIUM
CRITICAL
MEDIA
LAB,
44
GAUKEL
ST
KITCHENER
Event
Moderator:
Marcel
O’Gorman
11:00_Guest
Speaker:
Mona
El-Khafif,
co-director
of
UWSA
DATAlab
and
principle
of
SCALESHIFT
11:30_CAFKA.16
Artist
Roundtable
1
12:00_Lunch
Break
13:00_Lori
Blondeau
&
Adrian
Stimson
reprise
Belle&
Boy’s:
Savage
Buffalo
Happy
Hour
14:00_This
Could
Be
The
Place
Artist
Panel
moderated
by
Gabby
Moser,
writer,
independent
curator
and
acting
chair
of
Visual
&
Critical
Studies,
OCAD
University
15:00_Guest
Speaker:
Christine
Shaw,
assistant
professor
and
director/curator
of
Blackwood
Gallery,
University
of
Toronto
Mississauga
15:30_CAFKA.16
Artist
Roundtable
2