Programming

October 8^th 2010 @ Just For Laughs - $15 at the door – 8pm doors open

DARE-DARE artist-run-centre is thrilled to present our annual benefit extravaganza, the DARE-DARE GALA

This year’s GALA is truly going to be a night-to-remember for the visual arts community of Montréal – in tandem with the international Artist-in-Residence conference Res Artis, hosted this year by the RCAAQ, and showcasing artists nominated for the prestigious Sobey Art Award, the GALA is going to be off an off-the-hook, all-night-long art party.

We’ve packed the program with artists, musicians and animators that combine projected visuals, glam-rock, earthy stop-motion, contemporary story-telling and performative outbursts sure to keep the crowd enthralled and enchanted, with performances by the likes of Donzelle, the World Provider, Elfin Saddle, Daniel Barrow, Myriam Jacob-Allard & Brendan Fernandes. 

The GALA will blend franco and anglo artistic sensibilities, highlighting some of the key visual arts players in Canada today and music acts that defy the typical rock show routine – these groups combine stunning visuals and performance art sentiments into their epic, sweeping offerings. DARE-DARE’s GALA will see the Montréal art scene mixing with international arts personalities attending the Res Artis conference. Slotted on the same night as the opening of the MAC’s Sobey Art Award exhibition, DARE-DARE’s GALA promise to be a unique opportunity to connect and party with a rich contemporary arts’ global community.

The GALA will be festive, electrifying and delirious: the program brings together some fantastic and wild artists in a blaze of performances, and DJ Sharivari will keep you dancing until the wee hours of the morning.

Elfin Saddle is the evolved musical project of scavenger artists Emi Honda and Jordan McKenzie. Long-term collaborators on various visual art and sound projects, Elfin Saddle is a fresh culmination of the ideas and ideals shared by both artists. The duo has presented their amazing animation (WURLD) + musical performance in places such as the Biennale International and the Contemporary Art Museum of Montréal.

The World Provider has been fine-tuning the combination of mind-sticking melodies, strange sonics, and over-the-top theatrical performance since 1999. The WP is the super heroic alter ego of mild-mannered writer/filmmaker Malcolm Fraser, who started off as a one-man band in the same community as Feist, Peaches and Gonzales. Today, the WP experience includes a crack squad of musicians, including formidable drummer/vocalist Stacey DeWolfe, keyboardist (and award-winning filmmaker) Kara Blake, and guitar wizard Steve Raegele, to help bring his catchy compositions to the masses. Photo: Lee Towndrow

Pat Jordache is the new nom de rock of Pat Gregoire, a Montreal-based guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter who once brought endlessly creative (baritone) guitar work to the late, great Sister Suvi (which also featured multi-instrumentalist Tune-Yards). Pat Jordache combines Gregoire’s trademark deep vocals, stuttering, massive drums, and constantly ascending and descending guitar lines to rip you up and blow you away.

Myriam Jacob-Allard’s artistic sensibility involves a deep interest in popular Québécoise culture. She explores notions of identity and of impersonation in relationship to the myth of Country in Québec. Her performances, at once kitschy, tender and piercing, spotlight the active female presence in country’s subculture.

Cooper Battersby and Emily Vey Duke have been working collaboratively since 1994. They work in printed matter, installation, curation and sound, but their primary practice is the production of single-channel video. Their work has been exhibited in galleries and at festivals in North and South America and throughout Europe. Duke and Battersby are currently teaching at Syracuse University in Central New York and are on the shortlist for the 2010 Sobey Art Award.

Daniel Barrow uses obsolete technologies to present written, pictorial, and cinematic narratives centering on the practices of drawing and collecting. Since 1993, he has created and adapted comic book narratives to "manual" forms of animation by projecting, layering, and manipulating drawings on overhead projectors. Barrow is the 2007 winner of the Canada Council’s Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton award and the 2008 winner of the Images Festival’s Images Prize. Barrow is represented by Jessica Bradley Art + Projects, Toronto and is on the short list for the 2010 Sobey Art Award.

Born in Kenya of Indian heritage, Brendan Fernandes immigrated to Canada in the 1990s. He completed the Independent Study Program of the Whitney Museum of American Art (2007) and earned his MFA (2005) from The University of Western. He has exhibited internationally and nationally and has participated in numerous residency programs. He is the recipient of a New Commissions Project through Art in General, NY (2010) and is currently on the short list for the 2010 Sobey Art Award.

Compulsive and excessive, Violette Vilaine collects hobbies and alter-egos in the same fashion she collects objects. As Donzelle, she is ridiculous and pretentious armed with golden high heels, a plunging neckline, unsound metaphors but more importantly skilled collaborators Supported on stage by her “Janet Jackson-esques” dancers, her mission is to make you dance like there’s no tomorrow! Photo: Julie Artacho

After discovering Grime, UK Garage and Detroit Techno, DJ Sharivari (Bowly when he is producing) started out a thorough exploration of the avatars of international House (and dance music in general), which he shares in each of his sets with all the willing dancers. Anybody into deep bass and syncopated percussions should keep an eye on him.