Yesterday we witnessed a trilogy presented by young talented artists Tamara Barner, Taminator, and Antonin Desmarais-Godin at Tangente’s green space. It was very lovely to discover three authentic artistic proposals in the works during a fun and friendly evening for the inaugural season of LABdiff. LABdiff encourages advanced explorations and creations as well as a laboratory-inspired approaches to be programmed as an informal presentation. The goal is to connect artists, communities, and the public in order to create new links between practices and dialogues. After a three-week exploratory research in the Green Space, the artists are offering the fruit of their experiments in the form of a public presentation.
We were invited to put on slippers and get a drink in a room filled with sculptures of macrame, made by the first artist: Amara Barner, who was mesmerizing in her piece, inspired by her ancestors. Amara Barner is a BIPOC multidisciplinary artist from Minnesota who currently resides in Montréal. The experience of her performance was ritualistic and ancestral. In a long durational circular movement we see a young woman in a transformational process. She becomes wilder in her movements and frees herself from trauma during a short 20 minutes fascinating choreography. Amanda moves and interacts with her artwork, transforming one artwork into a costume, twirling like a dervish before getting back to her point of departure in silence.
The second performance is based on krump and presented by the dynamic dancer Taminator. Tanminator aka Valérie Chartier aka Lady Maddripp, has 40 years of experience in dance, ranging from ballet, jazz, contemporary, hip hop, house, and waacking to krump. We see a chair and a cello and Tamoinator, who in krump-style dances around and at one moment with the cello. Taminator’s duet with the cello is confronting us with her emotional journey: the dance piece has a both tender and hard emotional load.
Third and last piece was by Antonin Desmarais-Godin, who is a multidisciplinary artist based in Montréal. This is a shorter experience, in which we witness experimentation of movements inspired by circus acrobats, accompanied by Adrien Poulin, who is a sound artist based in Montréal.
After each performance we were invited to ask questions and give our response which made the experience e very alive and informal. It created an intimate relationship between artists and spectators.
Thank you so much Tangente to open the doors of this rich and exiting laboratory!
AMARA BARNER + ANTONIN DESMARAIS-GODIN + TAMINATOR at the LABdiff took place from March 16-19 at Tangente (1435 Rue Bleury). For upcoming Tangente events, click HERE.
