Martine Viale (Québec)
Subject Matter
Slow metamorphoses of time; an ambiguous moment “in between lines”. Sometimes extreme, sometimes precarious and silent, the body becomes simultaneously object and subject, presence and absence, redefining itself through a visual poetry.
For Martine Viale, the stimulation of reflection and questioning about how we live and who we are is a necessity. Working at the meeting point of Butoh and performance art, she believes in process and in the use of presence as a committed and essential action. She uses her body as a raw material, as a place of research and transformation. Dealing essentially with the vulnerability of human beings, her actions weave an ambiguous tension between the intimate and the social.
Born in 1968, Martine Viale lives and works in Montreal. Her artistic process is influenced by Butoh, for which she has trained extensively in Japan with the masters Kazuo Ohno, Yoshito Ohno and Min Tanaka. She has worked at Contaminate II, Boston, Grace exhibition space, NYC, Rencontres Internationales d’art performance de Québec, Le lieu, Quebec, TAMA 06 (Tupada International Action & Media Art event), Philippines, Live Biennial of performance art, Western Front, Vancouver BC, Contenedores Muestra International de arte de accion de Sevilla, Spain, International Performance festival Odense, Denmark, City Sonics, Mons, Belgium and Off festival Avignon, France.
With thanks to the Conseil des Arts et des lettres du Québec and the Canada council for the arts.