For my exhibition in conjunction with the Prix Powerhouse, an award celebrating women-identified, mid-career artists in Montréal, I initiated a series of collaborative performances honouring people who have been crucial in helping me to cultivate my creative path and devote my life’s work to my performance art/life practice.
[Feature photo: VS]
Photo: Helena Martin Franco
Rencontre Performative Encounter With… Louise Dubreuil (Nov 2018)
La Centrale galerie Powerhouse, Montreal, QC
...And Louise Dubrueil is one of those people. I met Louise in 1996 during a workshop with Sylvie Tourangeau and we instantly bonded. We have co-created in several contexts (notably “playgroup”; an important initiative for the performance art community founded by Louise) and continue to be art/life companions.
Photo: Helena Martin Franco
Rencontre Performative Encounter With… Susanne Harwood (Nov 2018)
La Centrale galerie Powerhouse, Montreal, QC
...And Susanne Harwood is one of those people. I met Susanne through an important university mentor, since which time have written together and worked on a variety of creative life/art projects. Susanne's astute observations about our relationship to language and the world around us have had a lasting impact.
Photo: Helena Martin Franco
Rencontre Performative Encounter With… Sylvie Tourangeau (Nov 2018)
La Centrale galerie Powerhouse, Montreal, QC
...And Sylvie Tourangeau is one of those people. I met Sylvie in my first performance art workshop, at La Centrale; a turning point in my practice. I immediately saw an ally and Sylvie went on to mentor me in my teaching practice as well. In 2007, along with Anne Bérubé, we became the TouVA collective.
Photo: Véronique Boilard
Rencontre Performative Encounter With… Jacob Wren (Nov 2018)
La Centrale galerie Powerhouse, Montreal, QC
...And Jacob Wren is one of those people. I became deeply interested in Jacob’s performance work for its capacity to invite “authentic” presence and address “failure” as a space of performative possibility. After a number of conversations around these intertwinings, this turned into our first collaboration.
Photo: Véronique Boilard
Rencontre Performative Encounter With… Kathryn and Bob Presner (Nov 2018)
La Centrale galerie Powerhouse, Montreal, QC
...And Kathryn, along with her dad Bob, are two of those people. KP and I met in arts camp as young teenagers. Aspiring actors, we went on auditions, took acting classes and did “extra” work on local film sets. Coached by KP’s dad, a film industry person, Bob was my earliest mentor — and the two became lifelong life/art friends.
Photo: Helena Martin Franco
Rencontre Performative Encounter With… Sylvie Cotton (Dec 2018)
La Centrale galerie Powerhouse, Montreal, QC
...And Sylvie Cotton is one of those people. Interested in dialogic practices, I have closely followed Sylvie, an artist whose profound sensitivity poignantly underscores the human dimension in her relational work. Since meeting in 2000, we’ve explored the intimate gesture, infiltrating actions, even musical experiments.
Photo: Helena Martin Franco
Rencontre Performative Encounter With… Nathalie Derome (Dec 2018)
La Centrale galerie Powerhouse, Montreal, QC
...And Nathalie Derome is one of those people. The interdisciplinary performances I saw Nathalie do in the 1990s transformed my understanding of the performative landscape. Creating unique universes through absurd and joyful text-songs, seeing her perform gave me permission to explore my words in entirely new ways.
Photo: Helena Martin Franco
Rencontre Performative Encounter With… karen elaine spencer (Dec 2018)
La Centrale galerie Powerhouse, Montreal, QC
...And karen elaine spencer is one of those people. Not only have I been profoundly influenced by karen’s rigorous engagement with furtive, infiltrating performance practices, I have also benefited from her commitment to nurturing a community around her. karen’s mentorship keeps me keeping on researching and making. 
Email from Linda Mary Montano
Rencontre Performative Encounter With… Linda Mary Montano (Nov-Dec 2018)
La Centrale galerie Powerhouse, Montreal, QC
...And Linda Mary Montano is one of those people. Her practice as an art/life artist has been probably the single most influential on my global thinking as an artist and on so many levels (even if from afar). As far as dissolving the boundaries between art/life, she is, arguably, one of the most important artists in this realm of making. 
Photo: Kimura Byol
Existential Poutine (Nov-Dec 2018)
La Centrale galerie Powerhouse, Montreal, QC
Ah… sneaking this one in. Helena Martin Franco is the artist with whom I shared this prize and together we occupied the space of the gallery, engaging in performative research and ongoing dialogues. Our “Existential Poutine” was a final event in which we hosted a banquet in collective tribute to our collaborators.
Victoria Stanton 