Presented by University of Waterloo Art Gallery + UW Fine Arts

University of Waterloo Arts Quad

 

This Could Be The Place continues the trajectory of presenting challenging and contemplative performance art on campus using a vintage Airstream trailer as a staging area. Prior events hosted in 2014 and 2016, respectively addressed themes relating to precarityand borders. This third iteration responds to our sense of facing a state of emergency on a daily basis. Five artists have been invited to respond to this theme by addressing the notion of careas a form of restorative cultural labour. What kinds of aesthetic, social, and political practices can we enact to encourage and empower diverse communities to listen, exchange and cooperate in a media-saturated global context mired by environmental, political and cultural crisis? It is our belief that modest acts of care and compassion on a local level lead to positive outcomes that go some way towards enabling a better tomorrow. 

Food has always been integral to Abedar Kamgari's relationship with cultural identity. Diet can change based on a variety of factors, ranging from income and free time to climate, health and availability. Turmeric is a staple spice in her traditional cuisine, but one that she gradually stopped using after coming to Canada – for fear of its characteristic smell marking my body. In this experimental performance, Abedar Kamgari plays with turmeric as a tool for claiming space for brown bodies in public space and within institutions. // Abedar Kamgari is an artist, independent curator, and arts worker based in Hamilton and Toronto. 

 

A sound interpretation using the two blueprint profiles of the Canadian Pacific Railway mainline. One blueprint from 1800s and the other an altered version, marking places without train stations and often left off maps. This performance with bass guitar and guitar will accompany an acknowledgement of the maps, and the very place of this artwork.// Lisa Myers is an independent curator and artist with a keen interest in interdisciplinary collaboration. She is a member of Beausoleil First Nation and is based in Port Severn and Toronto.

 

Public Readingis a performance work that engages with audiences in an intimate shared experience. The artist travels through public space with a small library of collected books. Participants pick a book from the literary for the artist to read out loud to them. // Golboo Amani is a multi-disciplinary artist best known for her performance and social practice works. She is based in Toronto.

 

We live in uncertain times, times so uncertain we don’t know what to call them: the Holocence, the Anthropocene, Capitalocene, or the Chthulucene? The conversation around the current epoch from a quasi-scientific perspective can assist humans in the critically needed repositioning of ourselves as only one of many animaliaon the planet. In order to rethink our selvesin relation to the land and its discontents, I propose listening for relationshipswhile conceiving alternative futures and presents. // Johanna Householder works in video, performance art, and audio. Her interest in how ideas move through bodies and shape our perception of bodies, both human and animal, leads her often collaborative practice.

 

The Damned Damis a storytelling performance set in 2027. Rooted in research of actual localities and events, thisfantastical love story uses the iconography of disaster, to open up issues of a transitional reality,the relationship between capitalism and corruption, between cause and effect, emancipation and justice, and escapism into fiction. The damn as border is at once metaphor and Bosnian epic poetry. // Lala Raščić is a media and performance artist. She divides her time between Sarajevo, Zagreb, and New Orleans.

 

11:00_Panel Discussion moderated by Bojana Videkanic

-Elwood Jimmy, Program Coordinator Musagetes Foundation, Guelph

-Sonja Zlatanaova, Independent performance artist, board member La Centrale, Montreal

-Katja Praznik, Assistant Professor in Arts Management, SUNY Buffalo

-Jasmina Tumas, Assistant Professor, Department of Global Gender and Sexuality Studies, SUNY Buffalo

12:30_Lunch Break + Karaoke Performance by Tess Martens

13:30_This Could Be The Place Artists Roundtable 1

14:30_CAFKA.18 Artists Roundtable 2

 

ADMIT EVERYONE

University of Waterloo Art Gallery

East Campus Hall 1239

519.888.4567 ext. 33575

 

CONTACT

Ivan Jurakic, Director / Curator

519.888.4567 ext. 36741

 

FIND US

University of Waterloo Central Campus

200 University Avenue West

 

Look for the Airstream trailer between DanaPorter Arts LibraryLIB
across fromModern Languages ML

 

PARKING

Visitor Parking is available in Lot B, C or Q for a flat rate of $5

 

FOLLOW US

 

 

DRIVING

263 Phillip Street, Waterloo

East Campus Hall (ECH) is located across from Engineering 6
THIS COULD BE THE PLACE has been made possible with the generous support of the Region of Waterloo ARTS FUND. This Could Be The Place is a co-presentation of the University of Waterloo Art Gallery and UW Fine Arts, in cooperation with CAFKA.18: Recognize Everyone.