Public Discussion: Olivia Boudreau and Didier Morelli

OPTICA, centre d’art contemporain presents a public discussion with artist Olivia Boudreau who presented the video installation J'ai peur at the gallery last January until mid-March 2022. Performance, film and installation are integral to Boudreau’s practice. This specific work addresses the topics of phobias, intimacy, movement, psychology and much more. Didier Morelli, author of the exhibition’s text, will also contribute to this discussion by sharing his perspective as a performance artist and art historian.

OPTICA, centre d’art contemporain, presents this public discussion as part of a series of talks on contemporary art featuring artists, curators, writers, educators and academics.

How can you participate? Attend the discussion in person (note, there is a maximum of 25 audience members permitted in the space) or online by registering for the Zoom webinar or watching live on 4th Space's YouTube channel.

Have questions? Send them to info.4@concordia.ca

Since 1972, OPTICA has sought to promote Canadian contemporary art and to raise awareness among diverse audiences about the issues underlying the discourses and practices in visual arts through a varied program of exhibitions and critical and educational activities

Olivia Boudreau is interested in our ability to read and experience the real. She strives to capture unconscious and cultural influences on the meaning we give to images and events. The experiences offered in her films, video installations, and performances engage spectators’ perceptual capacities and invite them to go beyond the obvious. Through highly composed images, of bodies waiting, of actions slowly unfolding, Boudreau’s work brings to light subtle changes that can provoke varied interpretations. Her works have been widely shown in Canada, notably at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, The Rooms, in St John’s, the Vancouver Contemporary Art Gallery, as well as abroad, at the Fresnoy, in France, and at Casino Luxembourg - Forum d'art contemporain. Boudreau’s short films have been screened at many major festivals: the Toronto International Film Festival, the Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen (Germany), SIFF (Seattle, United States), and the Stockholm Film Festival. Also, in 2012, 2014, and 2016, Boudreau was nominated for the prestigious Sobey Art Award for contemporary art in Canada. 

Didier Morelli is a performance artist and art historian, critic, and curator with a PhD in Performance Studies from Northwestern University, Chicago. Associate Editor at Espace art actuel, his writing has been published in Art Journal, Canadian Theatre Review, C Magazine, Border Crossings, Esse Arts + Opinions, Performa Magazine, Spirale and TDR : The Drama Review, among other publications.