La Centrale galerie Powerhouse is an artist-run centre dedicated to the dissemination and development of multidisciplinary feminist practices. La Centrale encourages artists who identify as belonging to groups that are under-represented and/or not very visible in dominant cultural institutions, at all stages of their career, to submit a project.

Over the past two years, we have witnessed a change in the speed at which communities come together to express their realities. Being unable to protest in the street due to health restrictions, many people have turned to the digital space to be heard. We can think of feminist movements such as #MeToo, the movements initiated by queer communities as well as anti-racist movements such as Black Lives Matter, Indigenous Lives Matter and Stop Asian Hate. Strongly engaged content continues to circulate and be shared online, particularly on social networks such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. As a result of the health crisis, the digital realm has become the most effective means of communication for activists to rally together.

For the 2022-2023 call for projects, the members of the performance committee invite artists to explore the following theme: The body in e-activism. In light of the criticism towards performative activism, La Centrale asks you to reflect on the various forms of activism both online and in real life in order to consider their impact on our future, beyond trend movements. Through performance, La Centrale wishes to give rise to dialogues that reflect on these new forms of practice. What boundaries can be drawn between the virtual world and the physical world? How do the social movements created online impact public policies, the media, feminist movements and society? How does our digital presence influence and transform the way we advocate? How are our actions in the physical space diffused and transmitted into the digital space? How can we create collective engagement between our virtual and physical communities? How do we express our relationship to the web? This call is an invitation to explore different strategies for creating and disseminating performative practices that focus on social justice, online and real-life social movements, and collective engagement. The artists will have the opportunity to transmit a virtual and/or face-to-face presence to explore these issues.

The committee encourages artists to consider either a digital and/or presidential project using the following modes and formats:
✰ Virtual communication
✰ Connecting the virtual to the physical
✰ Augmented reality (ex: QR Codes, video and image based on AR)
The committee will select three projects:
✰ An Instagram performance residency
✰ Two performances in the gallery

Further information: www.lacentrale.org