© Crédit photo: Alain Beauchesne
Connecting from The Inside Out
My-Van Dam
"Connecting from the Inside Out" is a video installation project addressing the themes of body memory, healing and the impact of trauma in women from PANDC communities. My goal is to collaborate with PANDC performers to explore movement, touch and voice as a means of healing, integrating notions of somatic dance. Through my project, I am interested in how healing can be achieved through care, kindness and collective resilience. The performers are invited to explore the potential for connection between themselves through performance objects. These objects are like tools of solidarity, where they are passed from one movement to another, or serve as a means of connection between the performers. For this, I am inspired by the work of Lygia Clark and Senga Nengudi, who use performance objects as a means of speaking about memory and community. Clark, for example, created relational objects that allowed viewers to physically interact with the work, exploring ideas of interconnection, empathy and healing. Nengudi, meanwhile, worked with nylon stockings to explore ideas of social transformation by creating performance-activated installations."
Solidarity Through Movements and Objects
Performative activation:
Friday, July 7, 2023
Starting at 5.30pm
Open to all, no reservation required
My-Van Dam has invited dance artists Miranda Chan and Aurélie Ann Figaro to activate the performative sculptures she produced during her residency, accompanied by costumes by Rad Hourani.
ARTIST DIRECTOR
My-Van Dam
CO-CHOREOGRAPHED WITH
My-Van Dam
Miranda Chan
Aurélie Ann Figaro
PERFORMERS
Miranda Chan
Aurélie Ann Figaro
GENDERLESS COSTUMES CONCEPTOR
Rad Hourani
List of works :
My-Van Dam, Solidarity Object (1), 2023. Wood, nylon, installation, dimensions variable. © My-Van Dam
My-Van Dam, Solidarity Object (2), 2023. Wood, nylon, rope, metal, installation, dimensions variable. © My-Van Dam
My-Van Dam, Solidarity Object (3), 2023. Wood, rope, installation, dimensions variable. © My-Van Dam
Courtesy the Artist. © My-Van Dam
Rad Hourani, Genderless Band Aid 1, 2023. Mixed media with cotton, spandex, nylon, dimensions variable. Ed. of 1 © Rad Hourani
Rad Hourani, Genderless Band Aid 2, 2023. Mixed media with cotton, spandex, nylon, dimensions variable. Ed. of 1 © Rad Hourani
The Rad Hourani Foundation Collection. Courtesy the Artist. © Rad Hourani
ABOUT:
Rad Hourani’s genderless band-aid habits envelop artists Miranda Chan and Aurélie Ann Figaro in My-Van Dam’s “Solidarity Through Movements and Objects” project. Elastics and knotted textiles delve into the realms of religious, sexual, and economic social systems, challenging established boundaries.
Supported by the Rad Hourani Foundation.
My-Van Dam
My-Van Dam is a multidisciplinary artist based in Tiohtiá: ke / Mooniyang / Montréal. Dam holds a degree in visual and media arts from the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). She is also a member of the CODE BLANC collective, alongside artist Stanley Février and Maryam Izadifard. Her artistic practice focuses on the transmission of intergenerational trauma, memory and the healing process. She is particularly interested in the effects of traumatic events on our collective and individual memory, and the impact of trauma on our physical and psychological health, relationships and identity. Dam has presented her work at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, the Musée d'art Actuel/Département des invisibles (MAADI), the Rad Hourani Foundation, Place-des-arts de Montréal, the Projet Casa gallery, the Art Souterrain festival and the ArtHelix gallery in New York.
Miranda Chan
Miranda Chan is a movement artist and director based in Tiohtià:ke, Mooniyang (Montreal) and Paris. Her work fuses her passion for energetic movement and profound sense of visual aesthetic. Chan completed her post-secondary education at the École de danse contemporaine de Montréal, where she received her diploma in the interpretation of contemporary dance. She is currently dancing for Paris based company; La Marche Bleue. During this time she is also furthering her need to have an artistic voice through movement direction, while other times following directions by being in front of the camera for modelling. She enjoys mixing film, photography and fashion with movement. In 2020, Chan began a project called Political Bodies; this project acts as a form of empowerment for those within the work and those who interact with it. A place where marginalized bodies can rise and take their space, be heard and share. It aims to demonstrate and communicate the various roles dance has in our society and how it is often the forgotten route back towards our true selves, while also used as a tool towards becoming bigger than ourselves.
Aurélie Ann Figaro
Aurélie Ann Figaro is a performer from Haiti. In addition to training in traditional Haitian dances with Shérane Figaro and a classical dance technique built at the Académie du Ballet Métropolitain, she graduated from the École de danse contemporaine de Montréal in 2022. She has since worked with Sylvain Émard Danse, RD Créations, WAFD Interdisciplinary Creations, Other Animals: Interdisciplinary Arts and Catherine Gaudet. Ancestrality, eclecticism and versatility guide Aurélie in her career as a dance artist.
Rad Hourani
Rad Hourani is an interdisciplinary artist who uses the mediums of sculpture, painting, architecture, photography, costume, instruction, performance, textile, printmaking, curation, text, sound, and video to highlight the labels that are used to code and categorize human beings. His hybrid artistic approach revolves around the foundations and contexts of geopolitical, religious, sexual, and economic social systems, aiming to revolutionize these structures into evolving manifestations of activism.