Figure 8: Luciana Fortes' MFA Project
A piece about love, family, & mimicry.
June 26 @ 8:00 PM (PST) & June 27 @ 2:00 PM (PST), 2020 | Online | FREE
In the virtual stratosphere: Access link.
- All events are listed in Vancouver / Pacific Standard Time. Use the Time Zone Converter to figure out the time for where you are!
- For better viewing, please watch on a computer or tablet (not best-suited for smartphones)
- Duration: 35 minutes
- Join the artist for a post-show social on Zoom! June 26 @ 8:35pm (PST) and June 27 @ 2:35pm (PST).
*For the June 27th showing, there will be a screening party on Zoom! We recommend that you attend this showing so that we may connect as a community, particularly at a time when gathering is so limited. It will be a moment to share with family and friends from Brazil, Canada, the United States, Palestine, Australia, France, and Portugal.
To participate, please RSVP by 12pm on Saturday, June 27th to receive the Zoom link. To RSVP, email Luciana at luci_fortes@hotmail.com.
About this event
- Zoom doors will open 30min before
- Participant's microphones will be muted during the screening, and unmuted during the post-show social;
- This event will be recorded for archival purposes.
Figure 8 is... a dance move.
But also a type of knot.
If tilted on its side, it can represent the infinity symbol, signifying eternity,
or everlasting love.
If popped back up, it can look like a
silhouette.
Perhaps... it is a friendly figure, shapeshifting to understand more about
where it's coming from,
and where it is going.
Figure 8 is based on interviews conducted with 8 of the artist's family members from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The sound score interlaces their voice clips with distortion, repetition, and pop references, while the artist embarks on a journey of embodiment through a series of mimetic phases. By enacting their gestures in different places of the artist's home, she attempts to relive their presence and bring them closer.
During a global pandemic, Figure 8 has become much more than a requirement for an MFA degree, it has become a beacon of persistence. A piece that started out as a live show, it has migrated and mutated to an online performance. What could have been a limiting circumstance, slowly revealed itself to be an opportunity to find ways to bring loved ones who are 11.219 km away closer to home, while being in self-isolation. And now, as an online art work, it can be shared with, experienced, and witnessed by the very people it is seeking to treasure.
Created and performed by Luciana Fortes
Sound Artists – Daniel Blackie and Sam Meadahl
Software Design – Casper Leerink
Videography – Leonardo Cordonis
With contributions from Steven Hill, Robert Kitsos, and Meagan Woods.
Presented by the SFU School for the Contemporary Arts.
Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Degree of Master of Fine Arts at Simon Fraser University.
This work will be presented and has been developed on the unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.