Artist in Residence

Vanessa Brazeau

SEA Foundation is delighted to announce Canadian artist Vanessa Brazeau as it’s Artist in Residence at AiR Tilburg, Netherlands from June to September 2017

Emerging artist Vanessa Brazeau grew up in an environment where athletic achievements were valued more than artistic or academic interests. However as a young wrestling champion, she found her way into the arts. To be more specific, into performance work that connects the body and activism.

Vanessa Brazeau’s work implements social and political themes into athletic frameworks, in order to critique neoliberal mentalities of the body, competition, productivity and labour. The body is seen as a tool for education, empowerment, and stimulation of the mind. Emerging Brazeau offers this perspective to others with artworks that encourage participation, activation and resistance.

She views training as an educational process for our bodies, preparing it to cope with exceptional demands. However, this sort of training does not exist for artists and academics, who cope with equally high demands, mentally.

Residency and reflection

In her workshop ‘Thesis Body’ She taught small groups how to run and write simultaneously and feel good about not doing either one particularly well. The focus is on getting the mind to think under different circumstances and the body to act unnaturally, a true experiment with effective strategies for the learning- and creative process. One of her earlier works ‘The Solution Mat’ consisted of a performance with two wrestlers, each representing either a yes or no answer to a range of questions based on concerns in our society. Deconstructing current power structures allow these matches to show the public that there are other ways to find solutions than through elected officials, showing alternative ways to inspire change.

Blog the residency of Vanessa Brazeau in Tilburg
Colour Stalker performance sequence 
Johanna Caplliure, curator in residence
Text on Vanessa’s artist practice
Website Vanessa Brazeau

Program

Canada Day Dinner (Facebook even page)
1 June 6pm
Location: Project Space Tilburg, Tivolistraat 22, Tilburg

Public intervention (Facebook event page)
6 & 7 July 2 – 6pm
Location: Oude Warande, (meeting entrance fitness track), Tilburg

Ideogging workshop (Facebook event page)
8 July 4pm
Location: SEA Foundation, Tivolistraat 22, Tilburg

Kaldi Body (Facebook event page)
30 September 4pm
Location: Kaldi, Willem II Straat 68, Tilburg