June 20 to August 30, 2022
Carried Away is a collaborative project that showcases live drawing, improvisation and action art. For this section at Bòlit Center d'Art Contemporani, Vida Simon and Jack Stanley were inspired by the labyrinthine and enigmatic alleys of the old town, the Beatus manuscript kept in the cathedral museum and the history of Saint Lucia. Vida Simon and Jack Stanley's residency was produced in exchange with LA CHAMBRE BLANCHE in collaboration with PECT - Indústries Culturals i Creatives de Girona i entorn territorial.
Vida Simon combines various media to form site-responsive installations and performances. She has presented her work internationally in diverse contexts: galleries, hotel rooms, storefronts, theatres, rooftops, abandoned houses, a former synagogue, a horse stable, a tiny church... Recent projects include Too much/Not enough at CIRCA (Montreal, 2020); A Very Slow Blue, a performance on Ile Tatihou (France, 2018); and Ähnlichkeit, at Kunsthalle Lingen (Germany, 2017). Her work foregrounds improvisation, intimacy, fragility, and the resonance of ephemeral materials.
Jack Stanley is an art writer, independent curator, arts consultant, and copy editor based in Montreal. His interest in interdisciplinary practice and context-oriented art started in the early ’90s while studying at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Since then he has been preoccupied with the issue of place and the often-overlooked significance of context in the production and reception of artworks. Key theoretical areas of interest include hospitality, situated knowledge, critical regionalism, and institutional critique.
Collaborative Work
Simon and Stanley first met in a performance art class at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Since then they have worked together on art projects, as well as organized exhibitions, events, and discussions. From the very beginning they have been interested in the relationship between art and everyday life. For many years they ran a small gallery in their apartment called a room under the stairs, where they invited artists to come live with them and create works specifically in response to the social, architectural, and metaphorical qualities of the space. This later evolved into Souffles, an exhibition/event space in a former sewing factory in Montreal. Their ongoing collaborative performance-installation Carried Away has been presented at CVAG, (Courtenay, BC, 2017), Galerie B-312 (Montreal, 2018), Ad ognuno la sua p’arte (Villatalla, Italy, 2018); and Villa des arts, (Dakar, Senegal, 2019). Upcoming projects include an exhibition at At Home Gallery (Samorin, Slovakia, 2021), and residencies at Bòlit (Girona, Spain, 2021) and the Cinémathèque Québecoise (Montreal, 2021).
Photo : Gemma Martz, 2022.
Photo : Mar Teixidor, 2022.
Photo : Jack Stanley, 2022.