Two women in a sports field with feet together and arms out for balance, hair flying, as though they are jumping with both feet

Caroline St-Laurent and Liliane Moussa

CAFKA.21 | Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost

Women Performing ARTS + SPORTS Femmes en performance

Caroline and Liliane perform feminist sports related actions that question the position of women and gender minorities in the sports environment. The performance is inspired by the testimonies and discussions undertaken with athletes of different fields such as synchronized swimming, badminton, fitness, gymnastics, cycling and rugby.

The performance will be broadcast in August, followed by live discussions with the artists and guests. The artists will encourage physical engagement of the people visionning the performance to enhance community empathy and commitment.

Caroline and Liliane are using the sports environment as an accessible tool to open communication channels with the audience. This familiarity with sports allows the artists to transpose their work on gender inequities beyond the athletic field.

In the work of these artists, performance actions that put forward physical effort are used as act of resistance against systemic patriarchy. They seek to empower women and let them claim the space.

Women Performing ARTS + SPORTS Femmes en performance will be presented as a series of virtual performances throughout the month of August. Visit the Programs & Events page for a full schedule.

 

Screening and Artist Talk and Panel Discussion with special guest Rissaile Mouajou-Kenfack

Gallery

A woman with her right arm up in the air palm down.
Two women standing side-by-side grinning and flexing their biceps upwards
Someone drawing abdominal muscle lines on the tensed abs of another person
A woman preparing to crash together a set of cymbals
Two women doing push-ups side-by-side
One woman is bent over forward with another woman balanced on her back with arms out and legs extended
A closeup shot of two bodies pressed together, placing a flexing arm centrally in the frame

About the Artist

Montreal-based performance artist Caroline St-Laurent’s art and sport hybrid comes from a feminist analysis of the cult of performance. The rules of sport, its various disciplines, its places, its codes, its accessibility, are for her fertile ground to question our high performance society, the inequality of its relationships and the anxiety that results from them.

Liliane Moussa is a dance artist and physiotherapist based in Montreal. In her creation, she's interested in analyzing the physical and social impacts of sports events and competitive environments. She questions the notions of individual performance and self-care in an effort to improve collective awareness and actions.

Image courtesy the artists.