centre d'artistes.artist run centre
Screening and discussion
September 26, 7pm
First Dogs, Now This is a collaboration between multi-disciplinary artists Nadia Granados (Colombia) and Jamie Ross (Montreal), on the occasion of Granados' invitation to Canada for the Rencontre Internationale d'Art Performance 2012 (Espace Le Lieu, Quebec City). The two began a creative collaboration earlier this year when Granados performed in Montreal (Darling Foundry, Studio XX), Toronto (The White House) and Chicoutimi (Le Lobe).
When the artists met, during Granados' trip to Canada, an explosive and giddy collaboration leapt forth across the barrier of language – one that was first articulated in terms of political struggle: against neo-colonialism in from both their corners of the hemisphere, against austerity, capitalism and corporate resource exploitation. This political orientation presents itself clearly throughout the work of both artists.
Power is fundamental in the work of Granados and Ross – power of the spaces beyond the continuity of institutional gaze –as well as those with the most acute public surveillance. Sex as powerful magical tool for awakening consciousness and unhinging social control is central and primordial in both their artistic vocabulary, and it's relevance in political resistance is a given. In Ross’ works, queer sex is touted as a tactic to unhinge deeply implanted social programming through ritual means; in Granados’, sexuality is wielded as an arm against political subservience and slavery, with the incendiary slogan: Orgasmo Libertario.
Characters in their films and performances tap into concepts of places of power as well. Much of Ross’ work deals with discovering numinous and spiritually potent placehood in everyday surroundings – infinitely local mythological place in abandoning Eastern Ontario in his recent experimental documentary; rural communities in resistance to corporate assassination in Colombia in Granados’ www.lafulminante.com project. As the settings of the central video collaboration, the Mont Royal Cemetery and the Pont Jacques-Cartier serve as focal points for magical manipulation. Nadia’s interest in body fluids makes material – talismanic or reliquary – Ross’ emphasis on place-based power. All these places’ languages, improvised performance tongues, indigenous language, ritual languages and imperial settler languages speak dizzy riots throughout the work, in various stages of translation as much as dress.
Nadia Granados (Bogota, 1978) .http://nadiagranados.com/index.html is an artist whose work explores the relationship between mainstream pornography and violence. At once performative and technological, her work fluctuates between art and activism, between cabaret, installation and video streaming. Her project entitled Acción erótica libertaria (Libertarian Erotic Action) showcases the acts of the artist's alter ego: La Fulminante. The latter invites us to enter the world of self-representation, of metaporn and of the functioning of the internet and its information and denunciation strategies linked to globalized markets. The artist seeks to articulate anti-imperialist struggles through the use of tropes taken from media representations. She utilizes communication in public spaces (streets, web) using her body as ignitor for social transformation. Nadia Grandos seeks to undo-unhinge the emancipatory discourse by uniting, in the same body, eroticism and social critique. In doing so, she seeks to “speak”from her body to Latin-American women. Her work has been shown during various residences and performance art festivals in the America (Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Columbia) www.lafulminante.com. (Tomado del catalogo del RIAP http://riap-performance.org/index.php/nadia-granados)
Bio: Jamie Ross is a self-taught visual artist and writer. He is interested in personal psycho-geography, land and place, with a methodological orientation privileging intuitive and non-rational ways of knowing. Overtly queer and punk themes make their way in from time to time, too. Creating and documenting queer community based on a sincere engagement with magic, grafting himself onto the rich artistic traditions of his ancestors, cultural and biological, is fundamental. Ross is based in Montreal. jamieross.org