Press Release For Immediate Distribution Montréal , March 12, 2012 The Body in Question(s) - The symposium

Interdisciplinary exchanges on the perception of the body 009

-- March 14, 2012, from 9am to 3:30pm at the Cle- ghorn Room - Bishop’s University - (McGreer Pa- 2 Dreamcatcher villon), 2600 du Collège Street, Sherbrooke --

Program / Oliver Marilène 9h-9h30 Doors open

9h30 Introduction with Cristian Berco, Historian and Isabelle Van Grimde, Choreographer.

10h-11h30 Panel : « The Body and Identity »

The connections between the body, community or cultural identity, and social hierarchy. The body’s representation as a means to support identity, build a reputation or affiliate to a group. The social and cultural filters that impose codified interpretations of bodies.

Panelists - Fabienne Cabado, Journalist specialized in dance - Cristiana Furlan, Italianist (Crossing Borders) - Claude Lacroix, Art Historian (Crossing Borders) - Nadia Myre, Visual Artist

Moderator Dr Cristian Berco, Historian (Crossing Borders)

11h45-12h30 Conference-demonstration by Isabelle Van Grimde, with the participation of dancer Soula Trougakos.

Choreographer Isabelle Van Grimde will talk about her theoretical research on the per- ception of the body, how it influences her choreographic work and how it connects to her current interdisciplinary creation-exhibit entitled The Body in Question(s). 12: 45-1 :45pm Lunch break

2 pm to 3:30 pm Panel : « The Body of the Future»

The strategies of adaptation and resistance to the changing interactions between the body, science and tech- nology. The ethical and social challenges linked to the progress of science and new medical practices. How physical reality is embedded in the body in these times of new technologies and virtual realities.

Panelists - Cristian Berco, Historian (Crossing Borders) - Paul Cassar, Scientist (Stem Cell Network, Ottawa) - Marilène Oliver, Visual Artist

Moderator Isabelle Van Grimde, Choreographer and Artist-researcher

3:45 pm to 4:30 pm Farewell Cocktail

Biographies

Cristian Berco Cristian Berco is Associate Professor in the History Department at Bishop’s Universi- ty. He also holds a Tier II Canada Research Chair in Social and Cultural Difference and coordi- nates the Crossing Borders Research Cluster. He has published extensively on gender, sexuali- ty, and disease in early modern Spain. Currently, he is working on the body, gender and ethnicity in inquisitorial Spain with support from a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada grant.

Fabienne Cabado Fabienne Cabado began her journalistic career in France, working for television and radio as well as the written press. Residing in since 2000, she collaborates with numerous media outlets such as Voir, Voir TV, CIBL- Radio Montréal and DF Danse, as a dance specialist. With a passion for dance since the 1980’s, she has become a privileged witness to the various manifestations and representations of the dancing body. Simultaneously, she bestows her passion for contemporary dance by acting as a cultural mediator in various dance related contexts.

Paul Cassar Paul Cassar is a stem cell scientist whose research interests include understanding the gene regulatory networks that instruct embryonic stem cells to remain a stem cell or to differentiate into other cell types of the body. During his PhD at the , Paul was involved in a variety of initiatives that allowed him to communicate stem cell science to a wider audience. Paul has authored articles for both scien- tific and contemporary publications and he provided scientific as well as artistic collaboration as part of the interdisciplinary «Perceptions of Promise» art exhibit. Currently, Paul is the Scientist-in-Residence with the Stem Cell Network where he continues his public engagement on matters pertaining to stem cell research. Cristiana Furlan Cristiana Furlan is Assistant Professor at Bishop’s University, Quebec. She obtained her laurea summa cum laude at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice. She later completed her Ph.D. at McGill University with the thesis Travel to Encounter: viaggi e alterità nella letteratura italiana sull’Africa tra diciannovesimo e ventesimo secolo. Dr. Furlan’s main research focus is on the archetypical function of travel in literature. She looks at travel literature as a primary mean for the representation of the encounter with the Other, and investigates the cultural effects this process enacts. Evolving from the literary sphere, she examines the discursive strategy for the dramatization of the other and analyzes its ethical outcomes. She is the author of “Africa vissuta e Africa raccontata” in Orientalismi italiani. Cuneo: Antares (forthcoming, March 1012) and “Italy and Lamerica: The Road of Remembrance” in Italy on Screen: National Identity and Italian Imaginary. Oxford: Peter Lang Publishing Group, 2010 , pp.17-32.

Claude Lacroix Claude Lacroix is Associate Professor in Art History and Theory at Bishop’s University. His research exa- mines how portraits in the visual arts cross borders between ‘‘real’’ and ‘‘imaginary’’ identities, especially when the artwork deviates from artistic norms. His focus is on the human body as site of mimicry, resistance, or challenge to the mainstream/normative construction of identity into gender, social, and/or ethnic categories.

Nadia Myre Nadia Myre is a visual artist from Quebec and an Algonquin member of the Kitigan Zibi Anishnabeg. For over a decade, her multi-disciplinary practice has been inspired by participant involvement as well as recur- ring themes of identity, language, longing and loss. Collecting institutions include: National Gallery of Ca- nada, Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec, Bibliothèque et archives nationales du Québec, National Museum of American Indian, and Fonds régional d’art contemporain de Lorraine in France. Works may be found on permanent display in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and the Canadian Museum of Civilization.

Mariène Oliver Marilène Oliver is a visual artist who works at a crossroads somewhere between new digital technologies, traditional print and sculpture, her finished objects bridging the virtual and the real worlds. She works with the body translated into data form (MRI and CT data) in order to understand how it has become ‘unfles- hed’ and then creates artworks that invite us to materially contemplate our increasingly digitized selves.

Soula Trougakos Soula Trougakos started dance at the age of three at l’Académie de ballet classique de Montréal. She then joined l’École supérieure de danse du Québec where she invested six full years to expanding her knowledge in all styles of dance. She integrated the Jeune Ballet du Québec in 2000 where she danced under the direction of many inter- national choreographers. She since has worked with companies such as Création Caféine, La [parenthèse], Rub- berbandance Group, ezanza, as well as Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal and Van Grimde Corps Secrets. Isabelle Van Grimde Isabelle Van Grimde, choreographer and director of Van Grimde Corps Secrets, has an international career marked by interdisciplinary collaborations that invite exploration into the perceptions of the body and its relation to the art of dance. Her artistic approach is characterized by the perpetual renewal of an authentic dialog between dance and music and by a visceral and sensitive approach to the body. Artist and researcher, she is also a member of several university research groups. Since 2005, she has been conducting nume- rous interviews on the perception of the body with important figures from the dance world, science and intellectual milieus. Entitled the body in question, this research has nourished the refined and animal mo- vements of her latest works and inspired the concept for the creation-exhibition The body in question(s).

To join the organizing team :

Van Grimde Corps Secrets : 514-844-3680 ou [email protected] Théâtre Centenial : 819-822-9600 ou [email protected] Crossing Borders : [email protected]

For more information on :

Van Grimde Corps Secrets : http://www.vangrimdecorpssecrets.com Crossing Borders : http://www.borders.ubishops.ca/ Théâtre Centennial : http://www.centennialtheatre.ca/fr

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