The SERRE – Living Arts was launched pn Friday, May 22, the 14th edition of THE OFFTA to be held until 32 May 2020. An invitation to discover the young creation in the living arts through a new remote programming. Each performance presented, whatever its form, arises from the desire of each artist to revisit his practice in the light of the present. Online, remotely, in interposed mailboxes, each gesture will aim to reinvent links, embrace the unknown and outsmart distance.
Calendar
The full schedule of the festival is now unveiled! This allows festival-goers who have booked a pass at the offta.com/billetterie, to build their personalized schedule.With the desire to make this edition affordable to all, a $0 package is offered, as well as solidarity passes at $25 and $50, all offering full access to the programming of the 14th edition of OFFTA.
Programming
This year’s festival line-up invites festival-goers to experience extraordinary and unique experiences in order to discover the work of inspiring and inspired artists. They will also be able to immerse themselves in the festival atmosphere thanks to Rituel en trois étapes à l’usage d’un public confiné conceived of by artist Félix-Antoine Boutin, who will play the part of the Guide.
Originally conceived as an installation in the public space, the collaborative project created by Montreal visual artists Penelope and Chloo and the Brussels director Simon Thomas, now offers an online variation. L’incroyable histoire de la file infinie tells, unsurprisingly, the seemingly incredible story of the creation of the queue by Jean File himself. A tale for all.
805-4821 is the story of a trans coming out reconstructed from other stories: a dialogue from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, a few snippets of memories from a swimming class and a Facebook correspondence of some 80,000 words. Originally designed for a modified overhead projector, Davis Plett and Gislina Patterson (WeQuit Theatre) offer a new version in the form of a virtual live writing performance.
On December 12, 2002, a man died of a heart attack in front of the interior forecourt of the Théâtre Maisonneuve in Place des Arts. 17 years later, his daughter Mélanie Binette (Milieu de Nulle Par) created Errances, a walk at the site of her father’s death, for one person at a time, whom she held by the hand. Pandemic obliges, the performance is now in the hands of the participants, who will have to practice wandering solo from their neighborhood, thanks to a soundtrack, directions and, for some, a telephone conversation.
Vulnerables Paradoxes is a series of five roundtables organized by SME-ART and conducted by artists, which offers a space open to discussions that we rarely have the opportunity to have. How and why do we do performance today? What makes our artistic wills political? What do we expect from the public and what do they expect from us? How does performance differ from other practices? Conversations that aim to better understand what we do and why we do it. Five virtual appointments during the day.
Around Mani Soleymanlou, La Jeune Troupe du Quat’Sous engaged in the creation of a work inspired by the Shahhnâmeh (Le Livre des Rois): the great Iranian epic narrative written around the year 1000 by the poet Ferdowsi. This winter they questioned our founding myths, these epics that still define us today and shape our vision of the world. Then the COVID-19 occurred… and the questions have changed. While the world is confined is theatrical encounter still possible? The troupe proposes to bring PROLOGUE directly to meet the public, wherever they are, from Montreal to Rimouski, in a park, on a balcony, always at a safe distance.
Artistic meeting between two long-time friends, STRIKE/THRU brings together Aboriginal visual artist Nadia Myre and indigenous theatre artist Johanna Nutter. Via videoconference, six members of the public are invited to reconstruct a recorded conversation between people of mixed origins while the two artists talk in order to explore the identity unease raised by the conversation. A real drive towards conciliation and reconciliation, this work brilliantly reflects the current climate surrounding relations between aboriginals and indigenous.
Through night tours of Nous Aurons, a serious video game created by the artist, Hugo Nadeau guides us through seven interactive scenarios on the Twitch platform. Nous campions loin des endroits où la mort nous attendait becomes an attempt to deal with reality, an exploration of the spaces between present and imagined times.
Wondering about the process rather than the result, Archéologie du vivant of Simiuni Nauya, Robin Pineda Gould and Aurélie Pedron (Lilith and Co.), offers festival-goers an open-air tour in the form of a treasure hunt. Using clues revealed as they progress, participants will be able to discover the hidden object/work.
A phone number to call will be communicated to festival-goers, and they will discover erotic phone conversation. SLippery Slit by Nate Yaffe is a sound performance on personal development with an original musical universe and thought for each intervention.
As we sail through this world where time is suspended, Camille Lacelle-Wilsey and Nien Tzu Weng (Double Fantasy) invite festival-goers with Elle est en avance // Un Spectacle Curieux (En tournée) to perform a choreographic score while walking down the street. It is an invitation to a walk designed to guide you through a journey, poetry, play, imagination and the unknown.
From the choreographic score of the ensemble Silver Venus (2018), Andrea Spaziani and Matt Smith build in Silver Venus Redux the sound environment and movements of a dance for headphones, which will highlight the movement of performers in space, presented in parallel with a cinematic landscape of scenes of Silver Venus created by Alejandro Fargosonini.
Following the success of the documentary show Post Humains, Dominique Leclerc and Patrice Charbonneau-Brunelle (Posthumans) propose a platform where citizens from all walks of life are called upon to imagine new possibilities regarding the future of our species, based on the premise that human beings are constantly changing. At the time of the Projections posthumanistes: pour une réflexion ouverte reflection, a panel of philosophers will be gathered to question and discuss the proposals of festival-goers.
Champion of the underground, Elle Barbara is here in front of the camera and shoots with Vjosana Shkurti and Alexander Storm a music video for her unreleased version of “Si j’étais un homme” (1980), Diane Tell’s iconic song. In a black box setting evoking the glamorous days of Hollywood’s Golden Age, a virtual session will be created, offering a behind-the-scenes look at the filming of Si j’étais un homme…, even before the video is released. Internet users will then be invited to sing along live as a group.
Between performance and score, Lara Oundjian and Co offer a multi-dimensional experience with Fleshy Sailboat, inviting festival-goers to discover a performance in the heart of the public space, at the unexpected turn of an alley. A score will also be transmitted to festival-goers, inviting them to walk in groups, but keeping a distance, to live a sensory journey and find pleasure in the unexpected.
FKA Family Tree is a video adaptation of the artist’s Family Tree Jordan Brown, currently in creation. Collage of disjointed and stitched personal anecdotes in different configurations, FKA Family Tree is a set of several branches, tangled or scattered according to conflicting logics and contradictory feelings.
Micro-party balcony
May 23, 27, 29 and 31
A proper OFFTA cannot take place without a party! Social distance maintained, the OFFTA offers this year balcony micro-parties. For 32 minutes, connect with other festival-goers, put up the volume of your laptop, open your windows wide and contaminate your neighbors with the festival energy of OFFTA! Whether you’re swaying on your balcony or in your living room, join us to dance together, despite the two meters (and more) distance that separates us.
#offta2020
