Exhibition — An Annotated Bibliography in Real Time: Performance Art in Quebec and Canada (2015)

A research exhibition and a series of talks at Artexte, Montreal

Phase I:  April 30 – June 20, 2015
Phase 2: September 3 – October 24, 2015

  • Exhibition view, An Annotated Bibliography Bibliography in Real Time: Performance Art in Quebec and Canada (first phase), Artexte, Montreal, April 30 – June 20, 2015. Photo: Guy L’Heureux. Courtesy of Artexte.

This first exhibition of An Annotated Bibliography in Real Time at Artexte was dedicated to thinking about how the published writings and printed matter on performance art can be activated from a curatorial perspective. Taking its outset in the archival collections of Artexte, the curatorial team invited ten performers and writers to choose ten texts that are influential to their work on performance-based practices. These bibliographical portraits and the selection of texts were at the heart of the reading room display at Artexte.

The participants of this first phase were: Tim Clark, Sylvie Cotton, Doyon/Demers, Johanna Householder, Michelle Lacombe, Tanya Lukin Linklater, Tanya Mars, Alain-Martin Richard, Clive Robertson, and Guy Sioui-Durand. Their bibliographical selections were also the subject of Readings on Performance, a series of filmed interviews in each participant discusses their selections.

For the reopening of the second part of the exhibition, a new feature was added: a diagrammatic mural that made visible the complex network of historical, institutional, and personal relationships that unite the publications on display.

The exhibition was also accompanied by a program of talks by Richard Martel, Sylvie Lacerte, Jacob Wren, and Sylvie Tourangeau.

Curated by Barbara Clausen, Jade Boivin, Emmanuelle Choquette, Joëlle Perron-Oddo, Julie Riendeau.

Additional Documentation

Curatorial Essay

An Annotated Bibliography in Real Time is the first presentation of the long-term university research project An Annotated Bibliography: Performance Art in Quebec and Canada, dedicated to an extensive bibliographic survey on performance-based practices in Quebec and Canada since the 1940s. While much has been written on performance art on a local and national level over the last three decades, this presentation is committed to offer a comprehensive overview of writings, publications and printed matter. By taking account of the wide variety of existing publications by theorists, critics, artists, and curators written in expectation, reaction and response to the performance art they are addressing, this project hopes to contribute to a better understanding of how the history of performance art has written itself and been received, becoming an integral part of the ongoing discourse and practice.

At the end of this first phase of our research we can see how performance in the Quebec and Canadian context – where the avant-garde to a large extent produces itself in artist-run centers, festivals and publications – is based in a cross-generational generosity and a continuously growing interest in its various histories. It is of particular interest to observe that a large part of the writings can be attributed to the collaborative effort between artists, writers and researchers. This is not due to the disinterest of critics and art historians – on the contrary as this bibliography shows well – but to the fact that the act of writing, much as that of research and reflection, are an integral part of both the history as well as the present and the future of performance art as an avant-garde genre in Quebec and Canada. An Annotated Bibliography in Real Time reflects this collective spirit inherent for performance art, shedding light on various modes of production and circumstances of experience as well as the ongoing reception of performance art over more than half a century.

One of the objectives of the curatorial team was to render visible the process of collecting a wide-ranging ensemble of publications and writings, compiled in cooperation with the UQAM art library and Artexte. As a testimony to the vitality of performance based practices, the exhibition space is transformed into a research and discussion hub, making accessible the first results of the bibliographical research as well as a collection of over one hundred publications and documents, selected and explained by Tim Clark, Sylvie Cotton, Doyon/Demers, Michelle Lacombe, Tanya Lukin Linklater, Tanya Mars & Johanna Householder, Clive Robertson, Alain-Martin Richard and Guy Sioui-Durand. An Annotated Bibliography in Real Time offers the visitors the possibility to contextualize and become aware of the various roles and complex networks that constitute the correlative relationship between the performer, the spectator and his or her given relationship to space and time.

Barbara Clausen, Curator and Research Director
With the curatorial and research group: Jade Boivin, Emmanuelle Choquette, Joëlle Perron-Oddo, Julie Riendeau.

Conference Program

Phase I:  April 30 – June 20, 2015

  • May 14, 2015, at 6 PM – Sylvie Lacerte: Poésie et storytelling: un itinéraire de la performance chez Vera Frenkel, de la graphie aux nouveaux médias (in French) (watch the recording)
  • May 21, 2015, at 6 PM – Jacob Wren: An apology that I have not properly documented my early performance work (in English) (watch the recording)
  • May 28, 2015, at 6 PM – Richard Martel: Systèmes périphériques et périphérie des systèmes (in French) (watch the recording)

Phase II: September 3 – October 24, 2015

  • October 6, 2015, at 6 PM – Sylvie Tourangeau: Quel performatif générons-nous ? Presented in collaboration with VIVA! Art Action. (in French and English) (watch the recording)

Exhibition Documents

Team and Credits

Barbara Clausen, Curator and Research Director 

Research and curatorial team: Jade Boivin, Emmanuelle Choquette, Joëlle Perron-Oddo, Julie Riendeau 

Research and project support at Artexte: Jessica Hébert, John Latour, Olivier Longpré, François Pisapia, Mélanie Pourrat, Zoë Tousignant, Sarah Watson

Research and project support at la Bibliothèque des arts de l’UQAM: Louise Guy, Lucie Séguin. 

Editors: Barbara Clausen, Sarah Watson

Editing: Marie-Josée Arcand, Artexte and the research team

Mural: Nicolas Oligny

Graphic Design: Gabriel Jasmin

Video production and editing: Charlotte Dion Dufourd, François Pisapia, Danielle Raymonde

With thanks to: Melinda Reinhart, Concordia University Libraries

Photographic documentation

Phase I (Artexte, April 30 – June 20, 2015)

Exhibition view, An Annotated Bibliography Bibliography in Real Time: Performance Art in Quebec and Canada (first phase), Artexte, Montreal, April 30 – June 20, 2015. Photo: Guy L’Heureux. Courtesy of Artexte.
Conference of Richard Martel within the exhibition An Annotated Bibliography in Real Time: Performance Art in Quebec and Canada, Artexte, Montreal, May 28, 2015. Photo: Guy L’Heureux. Courtesy of Artexte.

Phase II (Artexte, Phase II: September 3 – October 24, 2015)

Exhibition view, An Annotated Bibliography Bibliography in Real Time: Performance Art in Quebec and Canada (second phase), Artexte, Montreal, September 3 – October 24, 2015. Photo: Guy L’Heureux. Courtesy of Artexte.
Exhibition view, An Annotated Bibliography Bibliography in Real Time: Performance Art in Quebec and Canada (second phase), Artexte, Montreal, September 3 – October 24, 2015. Photo: Guy L’Heureux. Courtesy of Artexte.
Exhibition view, An Annotated Bibliography Bibliography in Real Time: Performance Art in Quebec and Canada (second phase), Artexte, Montreal, September 3 – October 24, 2015. Photo: Guy L’Heureux. Courtesy of Artexte.
Exhibition view, An Annotated Bibliography Bibliography in Real Time: Performance Art in Quebec and Canada (second phase), Artexte, Montreal, September 3 – October 24, 2015. Photo: Guy L’Heureux. Courtesy of Artexte.
Exhibition view, An Annotated Bibliography Bibliography in Real Time: Performance Art in Quebec and Canada (second phase), Artexte, Montreal, September 3 – October 24, 2015. Photo: Guy L’Heureux. Courtesy of Artexte.
Exhibition view, An Annotated Bibliography Bibliography in Real Time: Performance Art in Quebec and Canada (second phase), Artexte, Montreal, September 3 – October 24, 2015. Photo: Guy L’Heureux. Courtesy of Artexte.
Exhibition view, An Annotated Bibliography Bibliography in Real Time: Performance Art in Quebec and Canada (second phase), Artexte, Montreal, September 3 – October 24, 2015. Photo: Guy L’Heureux. Courtesy of Artexte.
Exhibition view, An Annotated Bibliography Bibliography in Real Time: Performance Art in Quebec and Canada (second phase), Artexte, Montreal, September 3 – October 24, 2015. Photo: Guy L’Heureux. Courtesy of Artexte.
Exhibition view, An Annotated Bibliography Bibliography in Real Time: Performance Art in Quebec and Canada (second phase), Artexte, Montreal, September 3 – October 24, 2015. Photo: Guy L’Heureux. Courtesy of Artexte.
Exhibition view, An Annotated Bibliography Bibliography in Real Time: Performance Art in Quebec and Canada (second phase), Artexte, Montreal, September 3 – October 24, 2015. Photo: Guy L’Heureux. Courtesy of Artexte.
Exhibition view, An Annotated Bibliography Bibliography in Real Time: Performance Art in Quebec and Canada (second phase), Artexte, Montreal, September 3 – October 24, 2015. Photo: Guy L’Heureux. Courtesy of Artexte.
Exhibition view, An Annotated Bibliography Bibliography in Real Time: Performance Art in Quebec and Canada (second phase), Artexte, Montreal, September 3 – October 24, 2015. Photo: Guy L’Heureux. Courtesy of Artexte.