one-minute-monument

Thursday, November 4, 1999, 12 - 1 pm
Ste. Catherine St., Montreal (between Guy and de la Montagne)

For the symposium I am planning a series of ephemeral living monuments, in which approximately 30-50 people spread on the streets of downtown Montreal simultaneously hold one minute poses. Multiplied throughout several blocks, these simple and seemingly random individual gestures can begin to be read by the unknowing audience as a structured action, pointing towards questions of public space and public trust.

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Through my work I try to understand the contradictions of my daily gestures. This effort has led me to explore the constant shifting of private and public selves, specifically the transformations that are brought out in the liminal passage between the two.

The exaggerated body I create with my costumes and performances can expand, retain, blend into itself and/or its surroundings. My body is broken down into its basic, and often mundane, functions - smiling, washing, walking, chatting, etc. - each one then amplified, mystified and sometimes commodified (for pennies a gesture). Within this enchantment of the everyday I am looking towards a state of continual change, where body, site and action can meld and meaning can transform.

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Rachel Echenberg is a multidisciplinary Montreal artist. Her work, based in objects and text, ranges from performance, costume, video and bookworks. She has been exhibiting and performing since 1992 in Canada and Europe.

 

 

 

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Nova Scotia College of Art and Design
BFA, major in Studio Arts, minor in Art History

School of the Art Institute of Chicago
exchange from NSCAD

 

Untitled window performance
Liste99, Young Art Fair

Falling...again
AttrAtion/Ap.Art, galerie Articule

Falling
Performance Index Festival

It would sound like this
Edgy women, studio 303

the water nymph
Counter Poses: Reimagining Tableaux Vivants, galerie Oboro

the water nymph
So High That I Could Almost See Eternity, Symposium of Performance Art
artist-in-residence at Struts gallery

i-man
OO gallery

i-man
Cabaret 5 at the Lion D’or, sponsored by articule

Clabber Girls
written and performed with Monique Moumblow
broken spoken at Pheonix

smoothed solid
part of a performance series, J’y suis, J’y reste, curated by Tanya Mars.
Galerie La Centrale

Untitled
street performance
part of the series See Through Performances, sponsored by OO gallery

unravelled, solo
Eye Level Gallery

dérouler: elle perd le fil, solo
Optica Gallery

une collection de rivières, solo
Lobede l’oreille coupée (gallery)

Effet D’Utilitaire (Rencontre Est-Ouest), group
Le Centre D’Art de Baie-Saint-Paul, curated by Michel Saulnier

soapworks, solo
A Room Under the Stairs

My toes wiggle inside my shoes, solo
Galerie Glace

living space/les vivants,
an installation-performance at home

one minute monument
part of symposium at Concordia University:
But Now I Have to Speak, public art as social intervention

 

Zoë Is Afraid of Flowers
Zoë Redoute les Fleurs (french version)
screened at various events in Quebec

The Boxstep
screened at various events in Halifax and Toronto

 

she was, bookwork
fluid editions

river samples: the love vendor’s book, bookwork
fluid editions

Post Presence, postcard series
supported by Articule, Special Projects

 

Sculpture Space

Est-Nord-Est, centre de sculpture

 

Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec
travel grant

Canada Council for the Arts
performance and interdisciplinary

Canada Council for the Arts
performance and interdisciplinary

Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec
research and practice

Canada Council for the Arts
Media Arts

Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec
research and practice

 

Instructor of video classes for teens and adults
Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Arts

freelance videographer of short documentaries on artists & exhibitions

member of galerie Articule, an artist run centre
board member (1994-96), selection committee(1994 &97), video committee (1995-96), curatorial committee (1995-96)