The Bentway is a public space in Toronto that spans 1.75km underneath Toronto’s Gardiner Expressway; this weekend, the site-specific promenade performance Dérives invites the public to particpate using a set of “collectively scripted instructions” to be enacted by a group of 60 performers while traveling The Bentway. The instructions include directives to do things like “embody (and sound) a poetic phrase with your whole body” or “make a movement (and sound) on 4 counts and repeat it” or “if a movement around you becomes dominant, follow it instead.”
We spoke to creator Noémie Lafrance about what to expect.
No Proscenium (NP): Can you tell us a little about yourself and your background in making site-specific art?
Noémie Lafrance (NL): I am a choreographer, film director, conceptual artist, writer and producer based in Brooklyn, known for working in public spaces and for engaging in public interventions. I’ve presented as part of the Whitney Biennial (2004), the Whitney Museum at Altria (2005), the Neuberger Museum of Art, the “Festival TransAmeriques (FTA)” in Montreal (2008), SESC Pinheiros, in Sao Paolo, Brazil (2009), “Mellemrum Festival,” Copenhagen (2009), PS 122 (2004), the Black & White Gallery in Brooklyn (2003–2006–2011), the Irondale Theater and the “Brooklyn BEAT Festival” (2012). I have also choreographed and directed music videos and concerts for artists such as David Byrne, Feist, Justin Timberlake, Carly Rae Jepsen, Snow Patrol, Amanda Palmer and many others.
My work is usually staged in public spaces (city-owned spaces) and I am invested in “reclaiming the public space.” For example, my work Agora, was seen by over fifteen thousand people as part of the reopening of McCarren Park pool in 2005 after 20 years of abandonment. I’ve also done work in a stairwell located in a city criminal court house, a public parking garage seating the audience in cars, and on the curved roofs of legendary architect Frank Gehry.
NP: What, in a nutshell, is this project about?
NL: Celebrating the repurposed architecture of the Gardner expressway via The Bentway, this site-specific performance re-envisions the site as a group navigation, questioning urban infrastructure as a new form of political power and social design. It invites you to participate in an exercise in psychogeography that explores how our navigation of architecture and urban infrastructure is “choreographed.” The work emerges from collectively scripted instructions to be enacted by a group of 60 performers and the public while traveling The Bentway site.
NP: Why did you create Dérives? What inspired you?
NL: I was commissioned by The Bentway to create this work for their site. There is an inherent idea of navigation to this space; one cannot see or experience The Bentway without physically traveling through it. The architecture is stark; a concrete space originally built for cars, not humans, filled with dust and noises, yet majestic with its endless repetition of concrete archways. I was inspired to follow the organic-inorganic patterns of repetition, reflection and framing that the concrete columns evoke, starting from a more visceral response to what I view as the architectures’ inherent poetic beauty. I saw patterns being created and dismantled and new relational segments being generated, and other physicality emerging from these rhythms.
NP: Can you tell us a little about the process of making this work and incorporating the community into its creation?
NL: Leading up to the creation of this epic work, a series of six workshops were held welcoming people from all segments of the community and all ages to engage with, and debate the ideas behind the work; inviting participants to question elements of urban infrastructure as a new form of social design and political power, and exploring how structures (physical and relational) affect our social relations, define new ways of navigating, moving and thinking, and impact our lives in general as urban dwellers. The workshops engaged participants (professional dancers and actors, members of the community at large, and future audience members) in round table discussions, collective writing exercises and group physical improvisations in movement and voice. The improvisational approaches welcomed participants of all experience levels.
Get Kathryn Yu’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
SubscribeSubscribe
During the workshops we used various improvisational techniques, such as movement-based and voice-based exercises to explore how body narratives are formed and to deepen our sense of embodiment. We also embarked in psychogeographic voyages of the site to develop group narratives. Through both discussion and embodied practices we worked collectively to create rule based exercises to define the “instructions” that formed the basis of this “work by instructions.”
NP: How is the unique venue of The Bentway incorporated into the experience?
NL: The work travels the entire expanse of The Bentway and the audience is invited to stop at five stations to view the different tableaus. Each one offers a different vantage point on the architecture of The Bentway and how it invites you to engage with the space.
NP: How is the audience incorporated into Dérives? What kinds of choices can the participants make?
NL: You will not be prompted to move to the next section, but simply need to follow the people in front of you; walk when they walk, stop when they stop — there are secret guides in the audience that will help lead everyone to the next stations. During the performance, you are free to move around the viewing area and to adjust for better sight lines as needed, and in some cases to sit.
NP: How are you designing around audience agency, consent, and safety?
NL: The audience is free to do what they want and is in safe territory, it is more of a traveling performance.
NP: Who is the ideal audience member for Dérives?
NL: Everyone is invited.
NP: What do you hope participants take away from the experience?
NL: I hope they are moved and inspired by the work.
Dérives by Noémie Lafrance runs June 7–8 on the Bentway in Toronto. Tickets are free.
NoPro is a labor of love made possible by our generous Patreon backers. Join them today!
In addition to the No Proscenium web site, our podcast, and our newsletters, you can find NoPro on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, in the Facebook community Everything Immersive, and on our Slack forum.
Office facilities provided by Thymele Arts, in Los Angeles, CA.
Discussion