Performance at Kiasma Theatre, on Saturday 16th 16.00

Yasuko Tadokoro aka VJ Mademoiselle (Japan),
Thien Vu Dang aka VJ Pillow (Canada),
Christelle Franca (Canada),
Patrick Watson (Canada)

Resume
What makes us what we are? In this performance, 2 individuals from 2 different locations on Earth express how their surrounding environment is shaping an important part of their identity.

Description
With progress in technology and communication, the earth has become like a huge town. Information and people are flowing through the whole world as easy as we would cross a street. In this global village, where everything is mixing up, identity had become a fragile idea. In all this jumble, I am wondering what makes us what we are? What is the essence of our identity?

In this world where everything moves at the speed of light, there’s one thing that has a relatively stable nature and it’s the land that holds our feet. This land where we were born, raised, the land on which we grew up is part of our geographical identity. It’s an identity we share with the people in our city or in our country. Things as simple as the weather and the food or more complex like the history, the architecture, the cultural life and even the language that we speak plays a key role in our identity.

Yasuko Tadokoro
We can feel the influence of the New Wave cinema movement in the artistic approach of Yasuko Tadokoro aka VJ Mademoiselle. Her stay at the prestigious Art Tower Mito Museum also helped to shape her vision of art, which she now transposes into visual experiments dictated by her fertile imagination. Favouring a certain idea of positivism, Mademoiselle’s video performances are characterized by a sense of freshness and lightness and they obviously bear the print of technical development in digital art.

Thien Vu Dang
vjpillow.com
Thien Vu Dang aka Pillow performs in Montreal’s electronic scene since spring 2001. He uses his background in fiction and documentary cinema to experiment new forms of narativity. His work is a constant quest to find new ways of communicating through images and sound. He finds in video performances an ideal organic playground for his experimentations.

Christelle Franca
With a background in dance, literature and theatre directing, Christelle Franca has chosen sound as the common denominator for artistic expression. Alternating professionally from DJ, to sound designer for dance and theatre, to documentary and electroacoustic performer, Christelle has been exploring the vast universe of sound art for over 6 years.

Patrick Watson
www.patrickwatson.net
Patrick Watson possesses the voice of an angel and his songs are psychfolk tales of melancholic euphoria. It’s Jeff Buckley signing on Philip Glass’ music, with a hint of Portishead. His last CD is the soundtrack of an imaginary movie and his shows, complex and elaborated, hit all senses in every angle and stick to the audience’s memory long after the last note has been played.

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

This performance benefits from a residency of Kiasma.