…As it has colloquially come to be known. Begun unofficially in 2014 my initial question was: can I do nothing and call it art? In a spirit of un-productivity collective non-actions, curated conversations, deambulations, and slow research make up the bedrock of these (often) representation-defying experiments. Visit project blog here.
[Feature photo: VS]
Photo: VS
Modelling Rest, Cuing Recovery (2020-2026)
Concordia University, Montreal, QC
Pursuing a PhD (in Art Ed) — another form of art residency — as an in-depth encounter with pedagogical and learning processes that invite reflection around (and activate spaces of) rest, pause and deceleration — both in the (art) classroom and the art-world. 
Photo: Stacey Cann
The Bureau of Noncompetitive Research (Nov 2023-Mar 2024)
PHI foundation, in parallel with JOUEZ/PLAY exhibition, Montreal, QC
In its current iteration, The BNCR (Stacey Cann, José Cortes and myself) occupy the Education Room of the PHI for four months creating an evolving performative installation in the guise of an Office. In matching suits we (question) work and rest, wielding ideas around un-productivity, labour, pedagogy, and slow philosophy. 
Photo: David Summerhays
Giving Nothing (Sept 2023)
Folie/Culture, Savoir [rien] faire, Quebec, QC
Bringing together ideas around labour, slowness and ritual, The Bureau of Noncompetitive Research (Stacey Cann and myself) gifted each other three moments for rest and recovery. And one for good measure from the both of us to Folie/Culture. The one receiving had nothing to do, except show up to receive.
Photo: Jean-Philippe Luckhurst Cartier
res(is)ting / repos comme résistance (2020-2021)
Verticale – centre d’artistes, Laval, QC
A series of non-actions in Laval QC that proposed moments of co-creation in which we came together specifically to rest. At once a workshop, a performance, a public infiltration, and a conversation, occurring during the heart of the pandemic.
Photo: VS
Resting, Walking, Place-Making: The Invisible, Liminal Spaces in Art (2017-2018)
McGill University, P. Lantz Arts Residency, Faculty of Education, Montreal, QC
A dialogic project spanning the academic year that invited education students (and larger community) into a diversity of life/art encounters: weekly walks, drop-in “art-talks” (informal consultations); creativity workshops, and a daylong conference examining resting, walking, and place-making in performative practices.
Photo: courtesy of the artist
The Sanctimonious Sect of Nothing Is Sacred (2016-2017)
DARE-DARE, Montreal, QC
A yearlong project that explored the complexities and im/possibilities of “Doing Nothing” through curated public conversations and collective non-actions, during DARE-DARE artist-run centre’s cycle of programming, “La Société des Rendez-vous.”
Photo: Jussi Virkkumaa
Canadian Silence (Oct 2017)
New Performance Turku Festival, Turku, Finland
A mini-cultural exchange enacting the myth of “Finnish silence,” this collective non-action invited Finnish participants to sit with me in “Canadian silence,” as we contemplated the question “Do Canadian and Finnish silence feel the same?”
Photo: courtesy of the artist
The Waiting Room / La salle d’attente (Sept 2017)
Folie/Culture, The 'a-Post' Office, Québec QC
A two-day relational performance embodying Waiting as another form of “Doing Nothing.” Stationed outside in a portable structure made by F/C, this Office on wheels became a Waiting Room (Salle d’attente) where I invited passersby to tell me their stories about waiting, or to simply sit and wait with me.
Photo: Eric Mattson
Bodies of Water (2014)
Les Voisins: Festival of Urban Actions, St-Lawrence River, Montreal, QC
Along the river, situating our human-scaled bodies of water next to this powerful, multi-geographic one, I proposed a group walk where sounds, movements, silence and stillness could simultaneously take place, and hold space.
Photo: courtesy of the artist
DOWNTIME: a woman’s work is never done (Jan-Mar 2014)
La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse, Montreal, QC
This is cheating but it’s relevant so I’m including it. The first intentional naming/framing of these ideas in my practice occurred in 2014 when I sent a proposal to La Centrale. It got rejected (as I anticipated) but the letter I received confirmed that I was onto something — kick-starting the project. I consider this the unofficial beginning.
Victoria Stanton 