AN OPEN CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS TO PARTICIPATE in a 15 minute outdoor performance art installation by Thom Sokoloski.

 

DATE: June 15, 2017

TIME:  4PM - 9PM

 

INCANTATION  is a site-specific performance art installation which will be presented at an unusual site along the mouth of the Humber River (Runnymede & Lakeshore) as part of Art Spin (www.artspin.ca).

 

Volunteers will become part of a 24-member grouping representing a ‘human internment fence’. Each member will wear a mask, be costumed and carry a light prop during the music created live by three female vocalists with accordion and drum. The grouping is meant to represent the momentum of enforcement as one sees in an anonymously shielded, masked and uniformed police phalanx. However, in this case the shield is replaced by a section of fence, the protective mask by an archive photo from the Internment Camps and the uniform by a body wrap of warmth.

Food and drink will be available during the rehearsal. Each member will also receive reimbursement for TTC and can safely secure their valuables in the rental vehicle we will have.

 

The duration of the entire work is 15 minutes. After the completion of Art Spin’s event, which includes two other site-specific works, all artists and performers are invited to the after party.

 

Schedule for the day:

4pm - 5:30pm - Mask and costume fittings

5:30pm - 6:30pm - Rehearsal of 'human fence’

6:30pm - 7:30pm - Rehearsal with musicians

8pm - Performance

 

During the First World War, a growing sentiment of Canadians against “enemy aliens" spread across the country. The British government urged Canada not to act indiscriminately against subject nationalities of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. However, Ottawa took a hard line and these "enemy aliens" were treated as social pariahs. Under the 1914 War Measures Act, over 70,000 Ukrainians suspected of being associated with Austro-Hungary were compelled to register with authorities. Over eight thousand were also interned from 1914-1920 by the Canadian Government in 24 concentration camps across the country, of which six thousand were ethnic Ukrainians, including men, women and children. Those interned in Banff were the forced labour used to build roads in the Banff National Park and dig the quarry stone for the Banff Hotel.

 

INCANTATION is a calling up of the spirit of these people who endured the internment in a country they helped to grow. It is one of the many chapters of Canada’s history which has been ignored because it singled out a people for having been culturally different and a suspected threat.

 

If you are interested in participating and/or have questions please send an email by visiting https://www.thomsokoloski.com/contact. All emails will be an answered and confirmed.

 

I look forward to your participation,

Thom Sokoloski