From February 20 to March 14, 2021
Art Souterrain is proud to present for its 13th consecutive year, the Underground Art Festival from February 20 to March 14, 2021. The works traditionally installed on the route of the underground city of Montreal will be accessible in public spaces safe, fitted out at all times free of charge, even if the city remains in the red zone. This year, the festival highlights performers and dancers who will offer you an immersion in the heart of the living arts.
Performative “rendez-vous” not to be missed!
Throughout the festival, the Palais des Congrès de Montréal will host performances in the form of meetings or “rendez-vous” that will be broadcast live on our digital platforms, thus allowing a lively, immersive and secure virtual experience. A great way to rediscover the warmth of the live with the virtual. Dances, performances or simple poetic strolls, the artists explore the theme of time and invite us to take a benevolent look at our future.
A year under the sign of dance
Dance is also invited to the festival through the contemporary dance school of Stéphanie Decourteille. To promote the dancers of tomorrow, the BingBang program offers us collaborative and multidisciplinary projects followed by an interview, all of which will be available on our digital platforms.
The performers for the 13th edition: Laura Resendiz, Daniela Porras, 22 marbles, Jeremy Saya, Nic Wilson, Chun Hua Catherine Dong, Francis O’Shaughnessy, Mai Nguyen, Léo Gaudreault and Laurence Beaudoin Morin, as well as the dance company of Stéphanie Decourteille.
The artist at the center of the festival
To get even closer to the artists, we offer filmed portraits interviews but also live on the course, giving09 us the chance to enter into the intimacy of the works and artists who will make the 2021 festival. Invested in the influence of the cultural sector , once again this year the Art Souterrain Festival will offer round tables, but also audio guides of mediations, allowing us to offer immersive content, available in the warmth of your home.
Impactful programming
Caroline Monnet
Self-taught multidisciplinary artist from the Outaouais region, Caroline Monnet uses cinema, painting, sculpture and installation to demonstrate a deep interest in communicating complex ideas about Indigenous identity and bicultural life in examining cultural narratives.
The work presented during the festival consists of the interweaving of two images: a typically Western representation of First Nations women versus a contemporary image where we can see women with frontal gaze and dressed in traditional stylish First Nations clothing. European style. The interlaced cutting of the images emphasizes the idea of superimposing information and a timeline: the work speaks to us in particular of the evolution of perception over time.
Caroline Monnet won the Pierre-Ayot Prize, which aims to promote the excellence of a young artist working in Montreal.
Kitoko Diva
After studying performance theater, Kitoko Diva experimented with filmmaking with music and graduated in art history and archeology with a film option. Born in Paris, France, she lives and works in London, England.
[The Black Man In The Cosmos]
Kitoko Diva’s hybrid practice, between moving images, installations and sounds, creates absorbing performances and immersive video installations, interacting with identity, heritage and social structure through a lens of surrealism. His work questions contemporary socio-political economic issues by constructing alternative landscapes. His experiments replace realities with new cinematographic forms. Its plans, inclusive and socially engaged, borrow dreamlike symbolism crossing space and time to redefine what you think you know about yourself and the world.
Francis O’Shaughnessy
The performer artist lives and works in Montreal (Canada). Since 2002, he has performed over 130 performances in 25 countries. He has presented at various conferences, guided artists at the college and university levels, and led theoretical-practical workshops on art. Since 2007, he has been artistic director of 20 major events. He has also written in various art magazines such as Art Actuel (Quebec), Ligeia (France), and Performatus (Brazil). Currently, he holds a doctorate (Ph.D.) in arts studies and practices at the University of Quebec in Montreal. Her research questions performative haiku, an artistic approach that claims a resurgence of love as an extension of the self.
The love we have for the weather
Composed of three narrative segments, The Love We Have For Time is a performative work that resonates with the current pandemic context. All segments are linked by a slow stroll of several participants, like a performative chorus. The first segment mixes the positive and the fatal with opera music as a soundtrack. The second evokes surprise through unexpected elements. Finally, the last segment appeals to the artist’s imagination. The three segments explore “being,” as well as uncertainty, hesitation, and drift. In addition, by presenting a haiku on a card, Francis O’Shaughnessy makes a shift from literature to living art. Forged as a performative haiku, the work opts for a living visual poetry: this performative tale actually wishes to resonate with the context of COVID-19. During this extinct period when everything is slowed down and in suspense, the artist calls to take advantage of the unexpected in order to transform our habits. Since this global event affected the speed in our societies, the artwork questions the love we have for time.
