The Body Remembers / Sanctuary
The Body Remembers/Sanctuary (2014-18), was an interdisciplinary artistic project created between four artists in dance, theatre, visual art, and video, with residents of the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal. Involving several phases of experimentation, research, and creation, a part of the work was presented at the Oboro gallery in 2017.
The project explores two central themes: the body as sanctuary and the body as storyteller. The theme of sanctuary is in some ways a response to the fragile life situation of the residents. Sanctuary represents a refuge or place in which one feels safe and at peace. This project expands on the notion by exploring where in one’s body one might find or create a sense of sanctuary, be it in a movement, a memory, a feeling, a sound, or an image. Beyond the individual, the search for sanctuary relates to the need to feel a sense of belonging and place in society.
The body as storyteller supports the notion of sanctuary because it gives a context in which sanctuary can exist. In knowing our personal history we know where we fit into the fabric of human relations. This theme is about how traces of culture and history remain in the body, the idea that the body contains memory and that memories are passed from one generation to the next through the body. It is about defining who one is and one’s sense of belonging through these traces, which reveal themselves through our movements, gestures, and the way we relate to others and our environment. Through explorations of the different medium, artists and participants gather, share, and document personal stories and experiences. Each discipline brings a different texture to the creative form emerging, and reveals different layers of meaning related to the particular story being told. The stories that emerge are ones of loss, recovery, abandonment, support, violence, safety, love, and resilience in the face of many, seemingly insurmountable obstacles.
Original idea
Reena Almoneda Chang
Artistic collaborators/ workshop facilitators
Reena Almoneda Chang (dance/choreography)
Emilie Monnet/Onishka (interdisciplinary performance)
Dayna Danger (visual art)
Melissa Morris (visual art)
In collaboration with
Residents and associates of the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal
Partners
Onishka Productions
Canada Art Council (CAC)
Conseil des Arts de Montréal (CAM)
“In this project, we explore concepts that are fundamental to my artistic practice, such as the mixing of different cultural aesthetics, the connection between personal experience and global and social issues, and above all else, exploration of the body as a container of memory, and as storyteller of an individual’s life history.”
“I hope this project, this experience, will create an opportunity for women to express some aspect of their life experience that they may not have had the opportunity to share elsewhere. In my experience, the creative process sometimes allows us to transform the way we see, live, and interact with the world. Even though the women’s priority is to reclaim their lives and heal from very difficult experiences, my hope is that they will discover how an artistic experience might (facilitate this process and) serve as a tool for personal transformation.” (translated from original)
R. Almoneda Chang, interview with the cultural mediation team of the arts council of Montreal, March 2016
