About the research project

An Annotated Bibliography in Real Time: Performance Art in Quebec and Canada

A series of exhibitions, conferences, and interviews, a symposium, a publication, and a database
2014 – 2020

An Annotated Bibliography In Real Time: Performance Art in Quebec and Canada is a research project dedicated to an extensive bibliographic survey of performance-based practices in Quebec and Canada since the early 20th century. The project began with a desire to understand this history through the impact of its writings and bibliographical sources, and is rooted in my longstanding interest in performance’s interdisciplinary nature and its ongoing engagement with documentary and conceptual practices.

Between 2014 and 2020, the research team has examined how the history of performance art is written and read. With the help and support of artists and authors, we researched, read and annotated a vast collection of writings, producing a comprehensive overview of the wide variety of existing publications written by performers, theorists, writers, critics, artists, and curators on performance in Canada, Quebec, and beyond. The ambition was to create a bibliography based research platform dedicated to the culture of writing and reading on performance art dating from the early 20th century to today. The results of our research includes this publication, an open access database, the ongoing series Readings on Performance and the documentation of all our curatorial projects and public programming produced in collaboration with colleagues at Artexte and the Bibliothèque des arts at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM).

Project Introduction by Barbara Clausen

Additional Documentation

Overview of activities

  • Publication: Production of a publication, co-directed with students, published in print and digital format, and containing over 2000 citations and 800 annotations, an essay by Barbara Clausen, three essays by students and exhaustive project documentation since 2015.
  • Zotero Database: Creation of a Zotero database including over 2500 bibliographic references, accessible online on the UQAM Library Services.
  • Series of Interviews: Production of a cycle of interview videos with key figures from the performance art community in Quebec and Canada discussing their choices of references on performance. The series is accessible on the UQAM Median Video Database.
  • Exhibitions and Performances: Production of research exhibitions presented at Artexte in 2015 and 2017; and the organisation of an evening of performances at Darling Foundry in 2019.
  • Conferences and Symposium: Presentation of three conferences (2015) and one round table discussion (2017); and the presentation of the project’s research to the public during a two-day symposium entitled Discourse in Motion, organized with project partners Artexte and Arprim and the UQAM Arts Library in 2019.

Chronology of activities

Phase I & II (2015)

Phase III (2017)

Phase IV & V (2019)

Publication and Zotero Database (2019)

Team

2014 – 2020

Research Director: Professeure Dr. Barbara Clausen, Art History Department, UQAM (clausen.barbara@uqam.ca)

Partners: Art Library, UQAM and Artexte

Funding: FRQSC (2016-2019), PARFAC (2014-2015)


Research Teams

2018 – 2019: Jade Boivin, Emmanuelle Choquette, Alexandre Girard, Véronique Hudon, Allison Kalb, Camille Richard (MA Art History and PhD DEPA students, UQAM)

2016 – 2017:  Jade Boivin, Emmanuelle Choquette, Maude Lefebvre, Geneviève Marcil, Camille Richard (MA Art History and PhD DEPA students, UQAM)

2014 – 2015: Jade Boivin, Emmanuelle Choquette, Joëlle Perron-Oddo, Julie Riendeau (MA Art History and PhD DEPA students, UQAM)

Website

Production and Content Management: Allison Kalb

Graphic Design and Visual Identity: Farah Jemel