about me:
The overlapping threads of my practice – as an artist, researcher and educator – place observation and dialogue at the centre of my undisciplined performative works. Becoming increasingly interested in distilling actions, removing artifice, and just plain hanging out, at this point in my decidedly process-oriented trajectory, I think I’d call it “curating experiences.”
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I co-authored two books (Impure, Reinventing the Word, conundrum press, 2001, with Vincent Tinguely, and The 7th Sense/Le 7e sens, SAGAMIE édition d’art, 2017, with the TouVA collective) and have published texts in a smattering of journals focusing on the performative as it is revealed in material and time-based practices. I have presented performances, infiltrating/relational actions, exhibitions, and films/videos in Quebec, Canada, the U.S., Europe, Australia, Japan, Mexico, and Cuba, and in 2018 was a recipient of the Prix Powerhouse, a biennial recognition award that celebrates women-identified artists who have reached the mid-stage in their career and contribute in a significant and sustained way to the cultural life of Montréal. In 2020 I began a research-creation PhD in Art Education at Concordia University, exploring “Doing Nothing” as a creative vehicle in artistic process through examining the role of rest, pause, slowness, and the interval in both performance art/artworld contexts & everyday spaces like the (art) classroom, and in 2022 was awarded a Canada Graduate Scholarship through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) to support my research.
When I started my practice (back in 1995), I performed primarily on-stage (spoken word and some singing/song-writing), but over the years my preoccupations with relational aesthetics (participation by audience in various dialogic ways), urban scenography/human geography (how bodies and the built environment intersect), and site-specificity (how place informs our actions and how we artfully respond to space) brought my practice out into the world. Occurring both within and without the art-frame, the goal is to responsively activate site by introducing a performative element via a relational exchange – collaboratively working toward expanding an interval in time while collapsing an already diminishing space between the audience/artist and life/art.
Material outcomes vary, with some pieces manifesting as photos, films, writings, the occasional drawing, and, even now, the occasional stage-presentation. Largely these days I’m in conversation. And often, the “work” (as art) stops there.
Keywords:
Performative Consciousness/Performative Encounters
Deep Hangouts/Dialogue/Performative Pedagogy
Relational Aesthetics/Infiltrating Practices/Everyday Actions
Non-Action/Micro-Event
Interval/In-Between/Interstice/Liminal Space
Place/Non-Place/Third Place/Space Ballets
Walking/Déambulation/Flânerie
Doing Nothing/Non-Doing/Slacking/Snacking
Art-Life/Life-Art/Un-Artist
For booking, images or research purposes please contact Victoria Stanton. For a deep dive into the website archive click here.
Facilitation / Coaching
With nearly three decades of practice under my belt, I offer workshops (in both English and French) and coach artists at all levels of their careers along with educators in various artistic disciplines. I’m also part-time faculty in Studio Art at Concordia University in Montreal. Having developed a unique pedagogy around notions of the performative in material, dematerialized and post-studio art practices, I am an advocate of humanistic education with a style of teaching that is learner-centred and favours a flexible framework where the learning environment becomes a place of “co-creation.”
For bookings or testimonials please contact Victoria Stanton.
Photo: (left) Gamine Gagnon; (centre) Miki Gringas; (right) VS
Collaborators
The Bureau of Noncompetitive Research
2021 – present
Initiated by Stacey Cann and Victoria Stanton, The Bureau of Noncompetitive Research is a fluctuating entity that brings together a mutual interest in slow processes, dialogue, and collaboration through academic research, collaborative writing, performances, workshops, and exhibitions.
TouVA Collective
2007 – present
Founded by Sylvie Tourangeau, Victoria Stanton and Anne Bérubé, the TouVA collective researches the practice of performance through multiple frameworks and approaches, including workshops, publications, relational/site-specific interventions, and performative artist talks.
Fluffy Pagan Echoes
1994-1996
This historical collective of ragtag scribes (Scott Duncan, Ran Elfassy, Justin McGrail, Victoria Stanton, and Vince Tinguely) brought its playful, political, irreverent, and earnest brand of spoken-word poetry to stages, sidewalks and radio in prolifically unimaginable quantities over two, very intense years (and a bit more, if you count the several mini-reunions up until the early 2000’s).
Photo: (left) VS; (centre) Henry Chan; (right) Susan Coolen
Resumes
Education
2020 (in progress)
PhD Student, Dept of Art Education, Concordia University, Montreal, QC
1995
Bachelor of Fine Arts, with distinction, Major in Inter-Related Arts, Concordia University, Montreal, QC
1989
Diploma of Collegial Studies in Creative Arts at The New School, Dawson College, Montreal, QC
Performance
2023
Sept
Giving Nothing (with The Bureau of Noncompetitive Research), various locations
Savoir [rien] faire, Folie/Culture, Québec, QC
2022
Jan
Steeped In (with The Bureau of Noncompetitive Research), online performance Somnambulations: Socially of Sleep Colloquium, Montreal, QC
2020 -21
res(is)ting // repos comme résistance, infiltrating ‘non-actions’ in various locations
Verticale – centre d’artiste, Laval, QC
2019
Nov
Descanse y disfrute, various locations, Avecez Art Space,
Montreal~Habana Exchange / A Quien pueda Interesar, Havana, Cuba
Exhibitions (Solo + Group)
2019
Nov – Dec
Roadside Attractions (documentation), Centro de Desarrollo de las Artes Visuales, Montreal~Habana Exchange, Havana, Cuba
2018
May
Ghost Stories, Galerie Espacio Mexico, Montreal, QC
2018
May – Jun
Roadside Attractions (Hull) Revisited, Galerie UQO
Tout contexte est art, Gatineau, QC
2014
Mar – May
This City, My Love, City of Saint John Art Gallery, Saint John, NB
Video Screenings
2016
LAISSEZ-PASSER, program of video works selected by Victoria Stanton, GIV, Montreal, QC
2015
ghost stories
VFP 2015 (Vidéos de femmes dans le parc), Centre DAÏMÕN, Gatineau, QC
VFP 2015 (Vidéos de femmes dans le parc), Montreal, QC
2014-2015
my body of water
33e Les Rendez-Vous du cinéma québecois, Montreal, QC;
Festival Images Contre Nature, Marseille, France
9th Montreal Underground Film Festival, Montreal, QC
Residencies
2023-2024
Fondation PHI, Montreal, QC
Four-month residency with The Bureau of Noncompetitive Research (as the Public Engagement artists in conjunction with the PHI’s Rikrit Tiravanija exhibition Jouez/Play)
2023 Jun-Jul
Middlepath Project – aMoral House of Cards, Yellowknife, NWT
Three-week residency to carry out process-based collaborative project titled
Jolliffe Island Chautauquas with Victoria Stanton
2020-2021
Verticale – centre d’artiste, Laval, QC
Yearlong residency to carry our process-based infiltrating performative project titled
res(is)ting // repos comme résistance – https://nothingissacred.ca
2017-2018
McGill University, Faculty of Education, Montreal, QC
P. Lantz Initiative Artist-in-Residence mandated to carry out yearlong process-based infiltrating performative project titled Resting, Walking, Place-Making: The Invisible, Liminal Spaces in Art – https://nothingissacred.ca
Things I wrote
2024
Winter
(Forthcoming) Writing About Performance Without Writing About Performance
Vie des arts, no. 273 (Dossier Pratique), Montreal, QC
2022
Winter
Talking Cure: Dialogue as Collaborative Resistance (co-author: Stacey Cann)
ESSE: Arts + Opinions #104 (Dossier Collectifs / Collectives), Montreal, QC
2018
Fall
Habiter ses propres cendres (co-author: Sylvie Tourangeau)
Things people wrote about me
2023
May
Sabord, no. 124 – “(Re)joindre le temps d’arrêt”
Karine Bourchad, Trois-Rivières, QC
2022
Aug
Berlin art Link – “Doing Nothing: An Interview with Victoria Stanton”
Dagmara Genda, Berlin, Germany
2021
Les Viscéraux, Sylvie Tourangeau, et al, ORANGE, Saint-Hyacinthe, QC
Curatorial
2022
Apr-Jul
Pedagogy and Time
Workshop series organized by The Bureau of Noncompetitive Research,
Concordia University, Montreal, QC.
2021
Sept-Dec
Slowness and the Institution: Doing Research Differently
Discussion series organized by The Bureau of Noncompetitive Research.
Concordia University, Montreal, QC.
2018
Nov-Dec
Rencontre Performative Encounter With…,
Collaborative actions series with Louise Dubreuil, Susanne Harwood, Sylvie Tourangeau, Jacob Wren, Kathryn Presner, Bob Presner, Sylvie Cotton, Nathalie Derome, karen elaine spencer, Linda Mary Montano, La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse, PRIX POWERHOUSE exhibition, Montreal, QC
Awards
2022-25
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC),
Canada Graduate Scholarship – Doctoral program
2020-22
Concordia Fine Arts Scholarship, and Hitting the High Notes Fellowship
Concordia University, Montreal, QC
2018
PRIX POWERHOUSE 2018, La Centrale – galerie powerhouse, Montreal, QC
Supporters
Mom: for never asking me “when are you gonna get a real job?!”
Karen: for constantly reminding me that “this is what makes art grow!”
David: for helping me coin some key terms in my current research.
Sylvie & Anne: for showing me that “when nothing happens, something’s happening.”
Kathleen: for providing stellar guidance through the maze of academia.
Tricia: for reviving the playful side of my web-presence.
Kathryn: for being such a tech guru since the beginning!
SSHRC: Thanks to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for their generous support in awarding me a Canada Graduate Scholarship, permitting me to pursue full-time studies toward a PhD in the department of Art Education at Concordia University.
CALQ: Thanks to the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec for their generous support of this website overhaul.
Illustrations credit: Tricia Enns
Victoria Stanton 