A SHARED SOLITUDE by Festival des Arts de Saint-Sauveur

https://festivaldesarts.ca/en/a-shared-solitude/the-project/description/

As we try to cope during this difficult time, most artistic events have been cancelled and many cultural organizations have had to curtail or reschedule their activities. The Festival des Arts de Saint-Sauveur is not permitted to hold any shows in its Big Top this year, but we have crafted a plan to pursue our mission while protecting the health and well-being of the artists, the public, and our staffers and volunteers, all of whom are our top priority. We are proud to unveil our new digital initiative, “A Shared Solitude,” created in cooperation with the Orchestre Métropolitain.

Artists have been hard-hit by this pandemic and need our help more than ever before. In keeping with its mission to support creation, the Festival decided to ask 20 Québec artists to create 10 original works to be shown online over the summer. Ten choreographers, chosen by our artistic director Guillaume Côté and 10 composers, chosen by OM conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin will be paired up to each present an exclusive joint-creation. The current crisis will be the common thread linking the 10 solos which, we feel, will prove that the imagination can never be quarantined and that if art can emerge from constraints, it can certainly emerge from lockdown.

In addition, our artistic director, Guillaume Côté, in collaboration with the Orchestre Métropolitain, will follow and document the creative process of the 20 artists through interviews that will be part of the final productions shown online. When circumstances permit, the creations will be recorded outdoors in the sublime Laurentian landscapes around the city of Saint-Sauveur. Every Sunday from July to September, one of the performances will be presented on our website. We invite you to check back often at festivaldesarts.ca/ to see which artists have joined the list as the project moves forward.

In commissioning these works and presenting them digitally, our aim is to promote the creative spirit and pay tribute to artists who demonstrate their resilience, their resourcefulness and their generosity. Here’s hoping that the arts continue to inspire, comfort, and awe you, illuminating your way forward as it does ours.

Choreographer Eva Kolarova and composer Maggie Ayotte are presenting the fruits of their joint creation. Danced by Eva Kolarova and music performed by Louis-Philippe Marsolais.

INNER DIALOGUE by Eva Kolarova

Isolation for me is inspiration

In isolation you don't have to give anybody any explanation

Isolation is both a blessing and a curse.

But Isolation helps me communicate with my soul.

For me, my biggest fear would be

Losing that thing that we call "light."