May 25, from 5 to 8pm

The performance Sang-froid by artist Marcella França is a healing intergenerational ritual dedicated to women who suffered under patriarchal domination throughout history, including the Brazilian artist's own ancestors. Using frozen plant blood to evoke a human heart, França attempts to create a link between violence against women and violence against nature. She intends to dissolve the pain and fear of this violence to create a cathartic experience through ritual.   

With the heat of her moving, living, and dancing body, França will melt the 10 frozen plant blood hearts as a tribute to all women. Through this symbolic act, the artist will dilute the fears, pains, and castrations that hinder women's actions and behaviors. The melting of the hearts by França's body heat not only represents the suffering of women but also the suffering of Mother Earth, caused by the abuses committed against nature in its predatory exploitation, impacting many Indigenous communities where women and girls are still the most affected individuals.

During her performance, the artist will melt hearts made of vegetable blood in a glass container, while capturing the sound of water using interactive software in real time. The captured sound will be transformed into an ancestral folk song, providing rhythm to the healing ritual. Through the body, movement, and transmutation, Sang-froid is a call for healing and catharsis to break the cycle of intergenerational trauma caused by the violence of the patriarchal system.

Artist's biography

Marcella França is a Brazilian contemporary artist based in Montreal. With nearly two decades of experience in hybrid languages combining contemporary dance, digital technologies and visual art, she expands the conventions of art to create performances, videos and installations that explore the relationship between nature, contemporary feminist issues, contemporary existential, political and ecological questions. Water is the main element of França's artistic research. She explores the physico-chemical aspects of water, such as fluidity, volatility and materiality, and combines them with philosophical concepts, intertwining decolonial issues, ancestrality, ecofeminism and immigration. Her artistic practice is an invitation to reflect on our relationship to water, nature and the societal issues that affect us all.