She Cut Her Own Belly Open
She Cut Her Own Belly Open is a performance art conceived as a commentary to the romanticization of marginalized people’s resilience and perseverance for overcoming biased societal systemic conditions. This performance also alludes to the collective, though not monolithically, experiences of people of color, immigrants and marginalized people of being constantly tokenized in the society.
Through the traditional practice of serenade, the musical aspect and the body language of this piece aim to pinpoint how the majority of the societal gaze undermine the needs and voices of marginalized people during a crisis by praising and applauding their resilience and strength from the aftermath response. Although the applause only shifts the focus of attention away from looking for real solutions.
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Iteration from the 17th ed. of OFFTA, 2023 > Photo credits to Nicolas Biaux
She Cut Her Own Belly Open has seen its first debut in the 4th edition of Festival Entractes in Batiment7, collaborated with musician and composer Oscar Robertson.
You can watch the documentation of this performance here
Debut from Entractes Festival, 2022 > Photo credits to Sigrid Patterson
Thank you to my musicians that whole heartedly supported this project's agenda.
Starting with my collaborator and good friend Oscar Robertson who transformed my story with care and love for the composition of She Cut Her Own Belly Open lyrics and music. And...
Loren Cantor
Zahya Tetrault-Belanger
Vincent Deit
Marlie Robertson
Florence Labelle
Vincent Bolduc
Mikhael Daoudi
Nicolas Lafortune
Ylan Halshtok
Florence Mailloux
Thien-Thi Nguyen
Beatrice Lortie
Étienne Perron
Gabriel Cordova
Raphaël Pépin-Tanguay
Matthew McNally
Ross Boyd
Art-in-the-Open, Charlottetown PEI 2023
This iteration was supported by Canada Council for the arts.
Photo credits to Emily Benoit
Our approach for survival to ‘live’ should not only ephemerally exist through trends.
If we were to be serenaded in lush promises and compliments, the words should be meant and put into action.