Concordia University hosts Encuentro 2014

Montreal, June 3, 2014 – From June 21 to 28, Concordia University will host the Encuentro, a biennial gathering of academics and performers with art and activism at its core. The 2014 Encuentro, entitled MANIFEST! Choreographing Social Movements in the Americas, is expected to bring together more than 750 scholars, artists, activists and students. 

Organized jointly with the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, this Encuentro marks the first time the event has been staged in a Canadian city and only the second time it’s been held outside Mexico, Central or South America. The program includes lectures, discussions, visual arts exhibitions and workshops exploring the intersection of performance and politics.

”Our faculty and students have a well-deserved reputation for forging connections with Montreal’s leading cultural forces”, says Graham Carr, vice-president, Research and Graduate Studies at Concordia. “Concordia is known internationally as a leader in multiple performance and artistic genres, as well as for its embrace of new technologies, commitment to scholarly critique and advanced curatorial practice.”

Faculty members have designed summer courses centered on participation in the Encuentro. Professors and students from Concordia’s departments of Contemporary Dance, Music and Theatre will also be involved in various exhibitions and performances at locations across the downtown Sir George Williams campus.

Great Small works, a New York City-based performance company is leading the planning for a parade-style public intervention to take place at a downtown location. Other visiting artists at the Encuentro include members of Vermont’s Bread and Puppet Theater troupe, playwright Tomson Highway and filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin.

Among the public events on the Encuentro program:

At the Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery, 1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W.

• Library of Performing Rights – a travelling archive of documents curated by Lois Weaver that explore the intersection of performance and human rights.
  
  
• Zapantera Negra – an exhibition of works produced in workshops led by Emory Douglas, former minister of culture for the Black Panthers; artist Caleb Duarte and Mexico’s Zapatistas.
  
  
• Manifestroom – a participatory installation by Zavé Martohardjono and Lilian Mengesha providing a space for interaction with historical documents from international radical and artistic movements.

At the FOFA Gallery, 1515 Ste-Catherine Street W.

• REDress Project – artist Jaime Black’s suspended red dresses stand in for missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada.
  
  
• Mujer, maiz y resistencia – photographer Julio Pantoja’s work explores the cultural role of corn within South American people’s creation myths, livelihoods and political realities.
  
  
• école libre – Tina Carlisi’s installation was developed in response to the Québec student strike of 2012 and seeks to find a connection between the different student movements in Quebec history and internationally.

At Théâtre Outremont, 1248 Bernard Ave. W.

• Gemelos – Theatrocinema (Chile) performance depicting the hard fortunes of twin boys growing up in an unnamed country in-war-torn Europe. June 20 at 8:30 p.m.
  
  
• Pedro Páramo – Teatro Buendía (Cuba) perform a dream-like tale that intertwines a man’s quest to find his lost father and reclaim his patrimony with the father’s obsessive love for a woman who will not be possessed. June 28 at 8:30 p.m.

In the J.A. de Sève Cinema, 1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W.

• Cinema Politica – Creativity, Colonization, Contestation: Indigenous Cultures and Peoples of the Americas On Screen and Stage - a program of short, medium and feature-length films with a special focus on Aboriginal artists. The program consists of fiction, documentary and experimental works from across the Americas. June 22 to 28 at 5 p.m.