IN THE FOREST : THE MORE YOU WALK, THE WIDER THE WOODS
2010
The Ying Yang Ladies were invited by the Festival Voix d’Amériques (now renamed Phenomena) for a “carte blanche” for their 2010 edition. For the first time the Ying Yang Ladies also acted as artistic directors by inviting five young women authors to blend their spoken-word poetry with mysterious and playful audio-visual environments . The public was invited to a surprising promenade through the forest in the Sala Rossa (Montreal).
One after the other, each poet dwelled in a space immersed with multiple screens where a virtual panoramic landscape and a distinct sound environment evolved around their spoken words. The audience was seated on each side of a hanging screen that divided the main space (in front of the stage) in half; the projection was on both sides of the screen, front and back. On a second screen, installed in front of the stage, a timeline of stop-motion images displayed a forest in the fall turning into winter.
Dominique Pétrin sortant de sa roche, Festival Voix d'Amériques, La Sala Rossa, Montréal, 2010 © Jean-François Leblanc
Marie Davidson, Festival Voix d'Amériques, La Sala Rossa, Montréal, 2010 © Jean-François Leblanc
The walk referred to in the title is shaped by the successive and very diverse spoken word performances mixed with video and music as the presentation unfolds. In this hybrid and polyphonic narrative, the public is invited to take the back roads : this forest is not the one we expect.
Each author/performer is a multidisciplinary artist and, along with them, the public is always walking on the wild and unsuspected side of this mental forest. The space of the Sala Rossa - usually a concert space - is filled from all angles.
The Ying Yang Ladies composed a distinct environment for each of the guest artists: a boreal forest and its First Nations spirits; a deer hunt at dawn; a dive underneath an frozen river.
Out of a smoke screen Dominique Pétrin begins the show by ‘exploding’ out of a paper-maché rock in which she had hidden before the audience arrived. Once exposed, she starts a dialogue with a god on screen in a medieval forest landscape filed with Cathar castles.
Marie Davidson improvises around her text as she throws spoons on the floor equipped with sound sensors, controlled by the musician, Mylena Bergeron.
Larissa Corriveau, Festival Voix d'Amériques, La Sala Rossa, Montréal, 2010 © Jean-François Leblanc
Isabelle Mandalian, Festival Voix d'Amériques, La Sala Rossa, Montréal, 2010 © Jean-François Leblanc
Larissa Corriveau starts her performance singing, accompanied by her accordion, then wanders with snowshoes, ending her performance dressing herself in a wolfskin.
Isabelle Mandalian, sitting at the bar, tells the story of how two brothers settled a score in a hunting cabin.
Finally, the curtains of the stage are opened to reveal Cynthia Girard in a cardboard forest of trees, flooded by the second screen video projection, and disguised as a great grey owl.
Cynthia Girard, Festival Voix d'Amériques, La Sala Rossa, Montréal, 2010 © Jean-François Leblanc
Les Ying Yang Ladies, Festival Voix d'Amériques, La Sala Rossa, Montréal, 2010 © Jean-François Leblanc
IN THE FOREST: THE MORE YOU WALK, THE WIDER THE WOODS
Technical description:
Performance, roughly 65 minutes, 2 screens, 1 panoramic front and back on translucent lexan + 1 screen with strips of papers simulating trees, quadraphonic sound system
Exhibition history:
2010 – Sala Rossa, Montreal, Festival Voix d'Amériques
The performance was recorded for the website Voix d'ici, audio directory of Quebecois poetry
Larissa Corrriveau en peau de loup, Festival Voix d'Amériques, La Sala Rossa, Montréal, 2010 © Jean-François Leblanc
Salutations, Festival Voix d'Amériques, La Sala Rossa, Montréal, 2010 © Jean-François Leblanc
Invited Authors / Performers:
Larissa Corriveau (multidisciplinary artist: poetry, theatre, cinema, dance, music)
Marie Davidson (poet, musician, singer)
Cynthia Girard (poet and visual artist)
Isabelle Mandalian (author)
Dominique Pétrin (multidisciplinary artist)
The organization was founded in 2001 by artist D. Kimm, who wanted a space that would reflect the spirit of experimentation and risk-taking that characterized her own art and her work as an artistic director. Of course, the organization is not only about girls; it works to create a public space for “different” voices.
The organization’s annual flagship event is the Festival Voix d’Amériques (FVA), devoted to poetry in performance and vocal experimentation.
