Artists Rodrigo D’Alcântara, yuki kéké tam, Camille-Zoé Valcourt-Synnott and Victoria Stanton invite you to an afternoon filled with performative and participatory moments. Join them as they explore ideas about invisible artistic labour, ancestral connections, creative rest and cultural practices of care.

EVENING SCHEDULE 

2pm / Participatory and performance-based workshop by RODRIGO D’ALCANTARA*
3pm / Participatory workshop by yuki kéké tam*
6pm / Artists in Conversation around Break Room (2025) with Camille-Zoé Valcourt-Synnott and Victoria Stanton

 *Registration required!

RODRIGO D’ALCANTARA / Matrilinear Spectra

2pm – 5pm

The three-part workshop, Matrilinear Spectra, allows participants to establish an ancestral connection with their maternal figures. The first part consists of an introduction to D’Alcântara’s practice through screenings of his films Sacred Jurema (2021) and CHARME (2026). Next, D'Alcântara guides participants in creating masks inspired by their maternal figures, using plaster face casts, papier-mâché, and acrylic paint. Finally, a thirty-minute session is devoted to hauntological performance exercises: participants, wearing their masks, are invited to embody their matrilineal spectres.

Registration is required to participate in the activity!

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Rodrigo D'Alcântara is a Brazilian visual artist, filmmaker, researcher, and curator based in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal. He holds a PhD in Art History from Concordia University, an MFA from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and a BFA from the University of Brasília. His multi-awarded international trajectory spans institutions such as the Royal Society of Canada, ISEA International, Vancouver Latin American Film Festival, Museo Ettore Fico, Werkstatt der Kulturen, and Mendes Wood DM Gallery. D'Alcântara has recently co-curated the landmark exhibition Tropi-X: Brazilian Art in Canada: 1970s - Now (Museum London, ON, 2025-2026).

YUKI KÉKÉ TAM / Pickle-y Limes

5pm

You are invited to pickle limes in salt in a 1-hour session, and join in on a conversation about preserving culture, sour healing, and treasured recipes. The Drinking salty limeade (鹹檸檬) is a popular form of folk medicine in the Cantonese diaspora, used to heal sore throats and indigestion. Food preparation becomes an access point and metaphor for processing negative emotions and constructing diasporic identity. What else, beyond our physical bodies, can we soothe when we come together?

Registration is required to participate in the activity!

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yuki kéké tam (she/they) is a multi-disciplinary artist, writer, and educator of Chinese descent living on Turtle Island (colonial Canada). Their research titled “Floating Autofictions: Traumatic Impressions of the Cantonese Diaspora” was nurtured through a Master of Fine Arts (Concordia University) with funding from the Fonds de Recherche du Québec and their previous Bachelor of Arts double major in Studio Arts and Human Rights & Equities Studies (York University). Their work has been featured at the International Multi-disciplinary Printmaking, Artists, Concepts and Techniques Conference (IMPACT), The Arts and Interdisciplinary Research Journal (Airea), The Toronto Transit Commission’s public transit system (TTC), and the Society of Northern Albertan Printmakers (SNAPLine) magazine.

CAMILLE-ZOÉ VALCOURT-SYNNOTT + VICTORIA STANTON / Artist conversation

6pm

For five weeks this summer, Fonderie Darling is pleased to host Camille-Zoé Valcourt-Synnott’s Break Room at the tables set up on Place du Sable-Gris. This participatory work consists of screen-printed napkins, forms, and pencils, which are made available to the public. Visitors are invited to take a break; when they sit down in front of the Fonderie Darling, they will find a form with questions about their relationship to work and rest. They can also add tasks to the collective to-do lists posted at the Fonderie Darling entrance. Through systems for collecting subjective data and participatory elements, such as surveys, the project aims to paint a playful and imperfect portrait of the people who visit the Fonderie Darling or pass through the Place du Sable-Gris. The Break Room forms will remain available to the public at the Darling Foundry front desk desk all summer long.

To conclude Break Room’s ephemeral installation on Place du Sable-Gris, we invite you to participate in a moderated roundtable discussion on artists who address the theme of “work.”

Speakers :

Camille-Zoé Valcourt-Synnott (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist and arts worker originally from Quebec City and currently based in Saint-Jean-Baptiste (QC), a small village on the traditional territory of the Waban-Aki Nation. She earned a BFA in Print Media from Concordia University in 2018 and an MFA in Fine and Media Arts from NSCAD University in 2020. Her work has been featured in artist-run centres and galleries across Canada, including La Maison des artistes visuels francophones (Winnipeg, MB), the Atlantic Arts Symposium (Saint John, NB), Latitude 53 (Edmonton, AB), the artch festival (Montréal, QC) and more recently, Xpace Cultural Center (Toronto, ON).

Victoria Stanton is an undisciplined performance artist whose infiltrating/relational works have been shown internationally. She is a published author and a Canada Graduate Scholar (SSHRC-funded) researching the role of rest, slowness, dialogue, and the in-between in artistic processes.