INSIDE-OUTSIDE, OFF & ON
Allegorical Circuits For Human Software #2, August 6, 2020
Fonderie Darling - Place Publique, Montréal, QC.
Curator : Laurie Cotton Pigeon
Live and live-streamed site-specific performance with hand held mirror by my mother.
Duration : 50 min 42 sec (online), a little over 1 h (offline)
« How is real presence defined, when the ‘self’, in all of its corporeal and psychic incarnation, is increasingly modulated, mediatized and performed, through technological devices? The performance Inside-Outside, Off & On aims to explore questions that surround digital identities, as well as the transformations of our experiences with time, intimacy and domesticity, in order to deconstruct the often artificial, and even "divinized" image of the Web's influencers. While digital technologies have, in recent years, evolved into devices for monitoring, controlling and exposing oneself, leading to a blurring of the boundaries between private and public space, Nadège Grebmeier Forget deploys, through intuitive navigation, performative actions that act against the controlled networks of the "giants of the Web". Also interested in the aestheticization of the monstrous and the complex relationships that the figure of the monster maintains with the feminine, she activates a subversive play on beauty standards through her surprising use of the mirror and the camera. Her use of reflection as a performance space will thus serve to propose new figurations that will allow us to confront a future that would be reduced to images. »
— Laurie Cotton-Pigeon, curator Place Publique 2020
« In July of 2020, the pandemic had just become a harsh reality for everyone. Artists, in particular, were feeling the effects of the isolation that was just beginning. At this moment in time, my daughter asked me to be a part of her upcoming and potentially last Live-Performance for awhile.
With no hesitation, I said yes and she began to prepare her work and my involvement in it. I was excited to be a part of her performance but concerned that I might somehow not be able to be the reflection of what she was hoping to achieve.
I had performed dance, had been involved in a few beauty pageants, been a homecoming queen contestant and was involved in cheerleading when I was much younger. The juxtaposition of what these experiences represent to today’s young women and particularly to essential parts of Nadège’s body of work, concerned me. That was until I analyzed the title of her performance: Inside-Outside, Off & On.
Performing with Nadège was such an exhilarating experience. Even though my part was supportive, I felt like I still had something to offer at this late stage of my life and was amazed to watch and feel the energy she invested and exuded. To watch the artist become the art and to be a part of it was a profound experience for me. »
— Diana Ruth Grebmeier, mother
Documentation : Adrián Morillo (official images), Nicole Burisch, Laurie Cotton Pigeon, Caroline Boileau (stills), Noémie Draveau.
