Some bodies refuse to disappear: even when denied, swallowed up and dead, they persist in living. In JUDITH, Sarah Chouinard-Poirier activates the figure of the zombie - a body denied, contaminated, monstrous - to gnaw away at the hygienic narratives of the war on drugs and make the dead speak that we would have liked to keep silent. Vir Andres Hera's performance brings to the surface the voices of those who were thrown overboard during the transatlantic slave trade, in a polyphony of sounds, broken archives and diffracted presences. Two performances to make what refuses to die speak, and to shake the order of imposed silences, from the flesh of the absent.
SCHEDULE
Bar service until 10pm
Catering service by Le Serpent + La Picá Chilenita
ATELIER RETAILLES / Fabriquer le papier de quenouille
As part of an open, in situ workshop, participants are invited to explore papermaking using cattail fibres harvested locally. Each person will have the opportunity to hand-beat the fibres and form their own sheet of paper. Rooted in the landscape of wetland ecosystems, the activity highlights responsible harvesting, natural materials, and a sensory approach to creation. Open to all, the workshop offers an introduction to the fundamental gestures of papermaking, where fibre, water, and frame come together.
///
Sophie P-Voyer is a visual artist and papermaker based in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal. She discovered hand papermaking during her Bachelor of Fine Arts at Concordia University, which she completed in 2016. In 2018, she founded Atelier Retailles to support her research on paper as a contemporary and eco-conscious medium. Voyer teaches, mentors artists, and collaborates on custom productions using a wide range of fibres—often sourced from textile offcuts from the local industry. Works produced under her guidance have been exhibited at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (Danse Macabre, 2021, Nicolas Lachance), in Los Angeles (Princess Diana Exhibition, 2021, Pauline Loctin), at the Saint-Lambert Contemporary Art Fair (Ton sur ton series, 2018, Véronique Buist), as well as in various galleries and exhibition centres across Montreal.
SARAH CHOUINARD-POIRIER / JUDITH
In JUDITH, a performance weaving together situated knowledge, speculation, cinematic codes, and (a certain) pop culture, Sarah Chouinard-Poirier invites us to examine the divide between the human and the less-than-human. Drawing from their community and activist work with people who use drugs, Chouinard-Poirier attempts to awaken their dead—so they might gnaw at the hygienist, racist, and classist biopowers that govern substances and bodies. Through humour, citation, confession, and embodiment, the artist interrogates the language and metaphors of the undead imaginary—those used to monetize fear of the Other in the context of the war on drugs.
///
Sarah Chouinard-Poirier is an artist living and working in Tiohtiá:ke/Mooniyang (Montreal). They earn a living in the community sector. Their work has been presented in artist-run centres, museums, theatres, festivals, conferences, bars, self-managed spaces, and other bastard venues across Quebec, Mexico, and Poland
VIR ANDRES HERA / At the limit of the otherworldly limit of the world
This performance takes as its starting point Marlene NourbeSe Philip's powerful poem Zong! In this text, the author conjures up a poetic chaos to make heard the voices of the silenced - those thrown overboard during the transatlantic crossing. For her, these sunken lives continue to exist beyond death.
Echoing this approach, Vir Andres Hera deploys a performance that blends ocean sounds, ballroom, bells, seismographs, voices and sound loops, together composing a polyphonic narrative, with multiple temporalities, where fragmented bodies attempt to reconstitute themselves.
Through this gesture, they seek to "re-member" dismembered bodies, to dialogue with the dead, and to hijack the forms of historical archive used to legitimize colonial violence. Drawing on NourbeSe Phillip's method of radical deconstruction, the performance becomes a space of resistance, ritual and living memory.
///
Trained at Le Fresnoy, Mo.Co. Montpellier, and UQAM in Montreal, Vir Andres Hera has held residencies at Casa de Velázquez, Triangle-Astérides, Breaking Bread and the Salzburger Kunstverein. His work has been presented internationally, notably at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Gaîté Lyrique, Mimosa House and Luma Foundation Westbau. His Amoxtli installation recently won the Jeune Création prize at the Lyon Biennale, and the Centre Pompidou devoted a retrospective to him. In 2025, the Tamayo Museum will publish a series of his writings. In 2027, his work will be exhibited at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney in a major exhibition on Indigenous diasporas.
Hera's film practice resists closure and embraces multiplicity, creating constellations of images, gestures and languages that reconfigure the experience of time, voice and identity within the moving image. He also directed the master's program at the École expérimentale d'Annecy-Alpes, where he taught cinema between 2021 and 2025. He is also on the editorial board of Qalqalah قلقلة, a transdisciplinary platform for research and translation.
PLZRS
PLZRS aims to bridge Montreal's audience with the evolving underground music scene of LATAM. The collective showcases avant-garde interpretations of new Latinx music, focusing on the sounds of neo-perreo, hyper-reggaeton, latin-bass, club latinx, guaracha and more. PLZRS also highlights latinx creatives specializing in various domains, including performance and visual arts.
4 pm to 10 pm
Performance evenings,FREE