PERFORMANCE FESTIVAL

7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art
Thursday October 23 - Sunday November 2, 2008

Nightly events at XPACE Cultural Centre
Daily events at Toronto Free Gallery
Up to the minute updates at 7a11d.blogspot.com

7a*11d is pleased to present the seventh International Festival of Performance Art from October 23 to November 2. Daily and evening performance art events take place at XPACE Cultural Centre and Toronto Free Gallery; with special events taking place at The Gladstone Hotel and the Fleishman Gallery at WonderWorks.

7a*11d is proud to announce our forthcoming 7th International Festival, a culmination of 11 years of working together as an artist-run collective. In order to celebrate this accomplishment, the 2008 7a*11d festival is nothing less than an international survey of global live art - progressive and provocative new performance works by over 30 local, national and international performance artists. The festival hosts residencies, performance art events, panel discussions, artists' talks, video/performance screenings, and workshops in 11 jam-packed days.

Artists participating in this year's festival include: Tomomi Adachi (Japan), Gustavo Alvarez (Mexico), Warren Arcand (BC), Francis Arguin (QC), Annette Arlander (Finland), Marilyn Arsem (USA), Sylvette Babin (QC), Natasha Bailey & Danielle Williams (Toronto), John G. Boehme (BC), Nenad Bogdanovic (Serbia), Ulysses Castellanos (Toronto), Simla Civelek (Toronto), BBB Johannes Deimling (Germany), Chaw Ei Thein (Burma), Angelika Fojtuch (Poland), Nicola Frangione (Italy), Randy Gagne & Stacey Sproule (Toronto), Sini Haapalinna (Finland), Alejandra Herrera (Chile/USA), Mahan Javadi (Toronto), József R. Juhász (Slovakia), Essi Kausalainen (Finland), Risa Kusumoto (Toronto), Norbert Klassen (Switzerland), Will Kwan (Toronto), Glenn Lewis (BC), Jason Lim (Singapore), Pia Lindy (Finland), Joost Nieuwenburg (Netherlands), Robin Poitras (SK), Martin Renteria (Mexico), Don Simmons (Toronto), Tonik Wojtyra (Toronto) and Sakiko Yamaoka (Japan).

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE FESTIVAL include:

OPENING NIGHT!
Thursday October 23, 8:00 pm
XPACE Cultural Centre (58 Ossington Avenue)
Warren Arcand, Will Kwan, Joost Nieuwenburg, Randy Gagne & Stacey Sproule

THE RESIDENTS
In honour of our anniversary year, we have invited 7 artists of exceptional merit to come to Toronto for an 11-day performance super residency; taking over storefronts, studios, galleries and the street to create large and small scale durational actions and new performance works. The 2008 festival Residents are Canadians Robin Poitras, Glenn Lewis, Warren Arcand, and Sylvette Babin, and international artists Chaw Ei Thein (Burma), Gustavo Alvarez (Mexico) and Norbert Klassen (Switzerland).

SPECIAL FOCUS: Finland
A special program featuring the work of four of Finland's most innovative female performance artists, women who mix high tech with the highly physical: Annette Arlander, Sini Haapalinna, Essi Kausalainen and Pia Lindy.

d2d.4 = direct to documentation 2008
Wednesday October 29, 7:30 pm
The Gladstone Hotel (1214 Queen Street West)
Screenings of video/performance for the camera from around the world right to your front stoop - join us for Granny Boots at the Gladstone Hotel featuring our fourth d2d screening program and other surprises!

FADO Performance Art Centre
Offers a special 5-day intensive performance art workshop entitled What is Important? with Berlin-based artist and educator BBB Johannes Deimling. Workshop takes place from October 17-21, followed by a public performance by the participants. FADO is also pleased to present the work of Angelika Fotjuch (Poland), BBB Johannes Deimling (Germany), Will Kwan (Toronto) and Sakiko Yamaoka (Japan) during this special festival year. For details, go to www.performanceart.ca

Festival Closing Panel
Terms of Engagement: Presence and the Performative
Sunday November 2, 12:00 pm
XPACE Cultural Centre (58 Ossington Avenue)
With Annette Arlander, Paul Couillard, Johanna Householder, Tanya Mars (via Skype). Intervention: Norbert Klassen.

7a11d.blogspot.com
Do it everyday! Visit our blog for festival coverage by Andrew J. Paterson & Elaine Wong.

For a complete schedule: www.7a-11d.ca
Get on the mailing list: info@performanceart.ca
Festival Hotline: 416-822-3219
Catalogue available at festival venues from October 13

7a*11d would like to acknowledge the support of our funders and the generosity of our partners: Canada Council for the Arts (Inter-Arts, Visual Arts and Japan Canada Fund), Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council, XPACE Cultural Centre, Toronto Free Gallery, FADO Performance Art Centre, FRAME (Finnish Fund for Art Exchange), Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Toronto, ProHelvetia, Stroom Den Haag, CIUT 89.5FM, Beehive Design, Twig Design, imagineNATIVE Film + Media Art Festival, Gladstone Hotel, Vtape, Coleman Lemieux & Company, wonderworks and Fuse Magazine.

Image Credit: Francis Arguin, Attempts to leave the ground, 2007, photo: Valarie Lavoie