Offered as an antidote to Toronto's annual all-night "art thing" Nuit Blanche, LEGS, TOO is an all-day performance art relay. The form of the event is dictated by a chosen duration (in this case 8-hours), which is then divided equally by the number of performance artists from the local community who invited to participate.
We asked a staggering 116 artists to participate, and 53 decided to join in. For this second iteration of LEGS, TOO, audience will witness a continuous performance work made up of 53 eight-minute performances over the course of 8 hours.
Participating artists are suggested by other participating artists, snowballing a self-organizing event that is disinterested in traditional curation. Founded on a belief in community trust, performative dialogue and artistic self-determinancy, the resulting collective event lets participating artists be responsible not only for the continuous stream of idea- and image-making, but also for the realization of event itself. There is no staff, no coordinator, no stage manager, only artists working together. LEGS has legs. LEGS is a manifestation of the social and performing body through the collective network and expanded community.
The first iteration of LEGS was presented in our sister performance art network in Montréal on February 7, 2015, at Le Cercle Carré. The score and format of the event was initially imagined by an informal collective of artists (including Christian Bujold, Michelle Lacombe, Marie-Claude Gendron, Nadège Grebmeier Forget, Katherine-Josée Gervais and Jean-Philippe Luckurst-Cartier) and was created with the intention of activating and making-visible the often fragmented local performance art community.
(The score) LEGS,
- is made by local artists (local/provincial) participating on a voluntary basis.
- is not crafted by a singular artistic direction or selection method, and refuses all curating models (there is a lead organizer who acquires a space and starts the chain of invitations - this is the only entity-driven action).
- is intergenerational, and the invitation is extended to performance artists at all stages of their careers. It does not however pretend or attempt to be an exhaustive representation of a community.
- is a minimum of 7 hours and a maximum of 9 hours long; the durational for each work is decided by dividing the total chosen time with the number of participating artists in order to realize a continuous performance relay without pause. The order of the performances is arbitrary.
- is not performed for the sake of the camera, but is photo documented and live streamed, if possible. Images will be collected by the transmitter, made available to participating artists, and published on a collective LEGS website, where the multiplying manifestations can co-exist.
- is characterized by the fact that each participating artist is autonomous; there is no technical or material support. Artists are responsible for their own set up and clean up (which is part of their allotted time). No performance will be stopped but artists will begin at their scheduled time.
- is not financed by any public program or entity and doesn't generate monetary profit for the organizers or the participants.
- asks, if desired, for a donation from attending audience who are free to come and go as they please; the collected donations compensate venue rental or documentation, if necessary, and the remainder is spent on refreshments for all.
- can only be transmitted to/in another community by an individual (or a small group) who has participated in the directly previous edition, and the physical participation of these transmitters in the next event is preferred.
- is shared through this score and set of principals across the performance art network
LEGS in Toronto is initiated by FADO Performance Art Centre. The custodians of this iteration are Shannon Cochrane and Adriana Disman. There will be two LEGS transmitters from the authoring collective/performers from the first iteration present in Toronto.
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Audience is invited to come and go throughout the day. If you cannot make it, consider tuning in to the LIVE STREAM. Here is the link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6ob2ZZYpUQ
ARTISTS IN ORDER
Nadège Grebneier Foget (transmitter from Montréal)
Katherine-Josée Gervais (transmitter from Montréal)
Tiffany Schofield
Adam Filek
Ed Johnson
Shaista Latif
Kate Barry
Emma-Kate Guimond
Katie Kehoe
Holly Timpener
Yan St Onge
Ellen Furey
Johannes Zits
Jonathan Simpson
Fiona Griffiths
lo bil
Anna Sarchami
Adam Herst
Lauren Scott
Eroca Nicols
Andrew James Paterson
Coman Poon
Alisha Mascarenhas
Brianna MacLellan
Alan Peng
Maggie Flynn
Dorothea Rust
Paul Couillard
Clayton Lee
Moynan King
Bojana Videkanic
Carrie Perreault
Johanna Householder
Christopher Willes
claude wittmann
Juliana Pivato
Liz Khan
Simon Rabyniuk
Robert Luzar
Marcin Kedzior
Golboo Amani
Liz Peterson
Aliya Pabani
Chad Dembski
Berenicci Hershorn
Teena Lange
Francesco Gagliardi
Zeesy Powers
Jessica Cimó
Alex Beriault
Rosa Mesa
Raki Malhotra
Tanya Mars
Adriana Disman
Shannon Cochrane
For an archive of the collected events in the LEGS series including the original event in Montréal, and subsequent events in Toronto and Zurich, please visit the LEGS website.
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Image credits:
Victoria Stanton. LEGS. Montréal, February 7, 2015. Image by Laurence Poirier.
LEGS roster. Montréal, February 7, 2015.
Christian Bujold. LEGS. Montréal, February 7, 2015. Image by Laurence Poirier.
Michelle Lacombe. LEGS. Montréal, February 7, 2015. Image by Laurence Poirier.
