Curriculum Vitæ
VIDA SIMON
www.vidasimon.netvidaatwork@gmail.com
EDUCATION
1990-1993: BFA, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax; semester exchange, Cooper Union, NY
1988-1990: Creative Arts Programme, Dawson College, Montreal
EXHIBITIONS & PERFORMANCES (selected)
2023: How to eat abstraction, site-specific performance-installation in a former café (supported by Canada Council), Montreal
2023: Carried Away : Le fruit hors du cadre, performance-installation with Jack Stanley, Cinémathèque québécoise, Montreal
2022: Carried Away, collaborative performance-installation with Jack Stanley, Cinémathèque Québécoise, Montreal
2022: Carried Away, collaborative performance-installation with Jack Stanley, Bolit Contemporary Art Centre, Girona, Spain
2022: Carried Away (actual edition), collaborative performance-installation with Jack Stanley, At Home Gallery, Samorin, Slovakia
2021: Carried Away: In An Earlier Present (pandemic edition), online exhibition with Jack Stanley, At Home Gallery, Slovakia
2021: Carried Away: L’écran de charbon, collaborative performance-installation with Jack Stanley, La Chambre Blanche, Québec
2020: Trop-plein/trop peu, solo exhibition, CIRCA centre d’art, Montreal
2019: Carried Away: peux-tu dessiner ce reve?, collaborative performance-installation with Jack Stanley, Villa des Arts, Dakar, Senegal
2018: Carried Away: rapiti, collaborative performance-installation with Jack Stanley (part of Ad ognuno la sua p’arte event), Villatalla, Italy
2018: A very slow blue, solo performance (part of Le chant des pistes) curated by Caroline Loncol Daigneault, L’île Tatihou, France
2018: solo exhibition, Sazmanab Center for Contemporary Arts, Tehran, Iran
2018: Carried Away : L’interruption, collaborative performance-installation with Jack Stanley, Galerie B-312, Montreal
2017: Änlichkeit, solo exhibition, Kunsthalle Lingen, Germany
2017: solo exhibition, Sazmanab Center for Contemporary Arts, Tehran, Iran
2017: Carried Away, collaborative performance-installation with Jack Stanley, Comox Valley Art Gallery, BC
2015-2016: Dresser la table, community-based performance-installation, 3e impérial, Granby, Quebec
2014: Stöcke sammeln (Collecting sticks), solo exhibition, Badstrasse Raum für Kunst, Siegen, Germany
2014: Partage, solo exhibition, L'Endroit indiqué, Montreal
2013: To Make Ends Meet, Fogo Island, Newfoundland (independent project supported by Canada Council)
2013: Papeles Alterados, group exhibition, Maison de la culture Cote-des-neiges, Montreal
2012: ELLE MARCHE blue mountain, curated by Caroline Loncol Daigneault, OBORO, Montreal
2012: Einschiffen, solo exhibition, Einheit 1 Gallery, Saarbrücken, Germany
2012: Choosing to save or dispose, performance at Interakcje Festival, Piotrkow Trybunalksi, Poland
2012: Kapusta (Cabbage), performance at Bielsko Gallery, Bielsko-Biala, Poland
2012: at home and us, collaborative installation with Jack Stanley, At Home Gallery, Samorin, Slovakia
2011: 3 solo performances, ZAZ Festival for Performance Art, Tel Aviv and Haifa, Israel
2011: An Unusual Pincushion, solo performance, Carbon Arc Cinema, Halifax
2010: Arthur et les ouvriers, performance with Christian Richer, TraficArt, Saguenay, Quebec
2010: Geschichte oder Stille (Story or Silence), solo performance, Kunstraum Walcheturm, Zürich
2010: Specimens, solo performance at the 9th International Performance Art Event, Turbine Giswil Switzerland
2010: Cantastoria, a drawn opera, off-site performance-installation in former stable, Montreal
2010: Amigdala, solo performance, InterAzioni XXlll Performance Festival, Sardinia, Italy
2010: Preserves, solo performance-installation, At Home Gallery, Samorìn, Slovakia
2010: Fourteen Miniatures, solo performance, invited artist at Circuit-Est centre chorégraphique, Montreal
2010: A Dream of Ash Teeth, solo performance-installation, Artspace, Peterborough
2009-2010: Approaching Stillness, collaboration with Tedi Tafel, Galerie Articule, Montreal
2009: The Suit, solo performance as part of Animaux et enfants, Galerie B-312, Montreal
2009: Leopold, performance on street as part of Animaux et enfants, through Galerie B-312, Montreal
2009: Ici on voit l’horizon, solo performance, Vaste et Vague, Carleton, Quebec
2009: Acts of Carbon, performance-installation curated by Irene Loughlin, Hamilton Artists Inc, Ont.
2008: Façade and Uprooting, solo performances, Deformes Performance Bienal, Santiago and Valdivia, Chile
2008: The Coat, solo exhibition, Vilnius Graphic Art Centre, Lithuania
2008: The River Inside My Head, solo projected-drawing performance, Kultflux, Vilnius, Lithuania
2008: Lamplight and Earth, collaboration with Jack Stanley, Galerie Port-Maurice, St.Leonard, Montreal
2007: The Study of Soap Remnants, solo performance-installation, The Study, Lethbridge, Alberta
2007: The Paper Ladder, off-site participatory installation for children, Montreal (funded by CALQ Jeune public)
2007: La souffleuse, solo performance, Galerie La Centrale, Montreal
2007: Malinas, solo performance-installation, Boréal Art/Nature, Labelle
2006: Excavation Drawings, solo performance-installation in hotel room, as part of VIVA art action, Montreal
2006: Puder (Porridge), solo performance, Polli Talu Arts Centre, Estonia
2006: Sorties/Stories, solo exhibition, Galerie Lilian Rodriguez, Montreal
2006: A Complicated Escape, solo performance in hotel room, Visualeyez performance festival, Edmonton
2005: The Mobile Museum/Le petit musée itinérant, series of performances (outside and inside), Montreal
2005: Walking In Russia, solo exhibition, Maison de la Culture N.D.G., Montreal
2005: Drawings, solo exhibition, Galerie Lilian Rodriguez, Montreal
2004: Oravannahkakauppaa, solo exhibition, Taidetehdas (Artfactory Gallery), Porvoo, Finland
2004: She came to my house, she knocked upon my door, curated by Karen Spencer, New Gallery, Calgary
2003: Vitae, group exhibition, part of Voila Quebec en Mexico!, Hotel Isabel/Epicentro Gallery, Mexico City
2003: InterAzioni Performance Festival, solo performance and with The Play Group, Sardinia, Italy
2002: Palpable, solo exhibition, Langage Plus, Alma, Quebec
2002: Chimney sweeping, solo performance, New Langton Arts, San Francisco
2002: Opera Eclipses, solo exhibition/performance, Galerie Articule, Montreal
2002-2007: Store: a moving sound ensemble, travelling performance for 1 or 2 people at a time, performed in homes across Canada, USA, Italy, Finland, and Estonia
2001: The Third Body, group exhibition curated by Jack Stanley, Galerie B-312, Montreal
2000: effigy, outdoor performance (with Jack Stanley), le Mois de la Performance (La Centrale), Montreal
2000: Master Class 5, performance in 7A11D Performance Festival, Toronto
2000: Porous, outdoor performance in the context of event supported by Galerie Articule, Montreal
1999: In/habit, residency and exhibition curated by Marian Butler, Ace Art Gallery, Winnipeg
1999: The Ghost Leaves, exhibition, Open Studio Gallery, Toronto
1998: Puppen, solo exhibition/performance in a derelict store on St.Laurent boulevard, Montreal
1998: letter , collaboration with Dagmar Dahle, Galerie Articule, Montreal; Helen Pitt Gallery, Vancouver
1997: Standing over the deepest darkest hole in the earth, solo exhibition, Galerie Samuel Lallouz, Montreal
1996: drawer, a book in an apartment, solo installation supported by Special Projects, Galerie Articule
1995: Sleep Patterns, wall drawing in bedroom at The Embassy Hotel, London, Ontario
1994: Breathing Stories, performance and drawings in group show, Anna Leonowens Gallery l, Halifax
1994: When you were a flapper with a Russian accent, performance curated by Tanya Mars, La Centrale
ARTIST RESIDENCIES
2022: Bolit Contemporary Art Centre, Girona, Catalonia (with Jack Stanley)
2022: At Home Gallery, Samorin, Slovakia (with Jack Stanley)
2022: Cinémathèque Québécoise, Montreal (with Jack Stanley)
2021: La Chambre Blanche, Québec City (with Jack Stanley)
2019: NAIRS, Scuol, Switzerland
2018: Le chant des pistes sauvages, residency-event curated by Caroline Loncol Daigneault, L’île Tatihou, France
2018: Sagamie centre d’impression, Alma, Quebec
2017: Kunsthalle Lingen, Lingen, Germany
2015-2016: 3e impérial, Granby, Quebec
2015: Residency for Local Artists, OBORO, Montreal
2014: Badstrasse Raum für Kunst, Siegen, Germany
2012: Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth, Wales (CALQ studio)
2011: Jennifer Keefe House, Tilting, Fogo Island, Newfoundland
2010: At Home Gallery, Samorin, Slovakia
2008: English Harbour Arts Centre, English Harbour, Newfoundland
2006-2007: Boréal Art/Nature, Labelle, Quebec
2006: Daimon, Gatineau, Quebec (residency and production grant to produce video)
2006: Postsovkhoz Symposium, MOKS Residency, Mooste, Estonia
2006: Polli Talu Arts Centre, Estonia
2004: Porvoo Paperarts Centre, Porvoo, Finland
2003: Symposium international d’art contemporain de Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec
1998: Open Studio, Toronto (printmaking residency)
1997: Residency at EST-NORD-EST Centre de Sculpture, St-Jean-Port-Joli, Quebec
1992: Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, Vermont
EXHIBITION REVIEWS/ESSAYS ON MY WORK (selected)
Vida Simon & Jack Stanley: Carried Away: The Fruit Outside of the Frame, Nikki Middlemiss, ESSE, Fall 2023
Tout juste avant l’embouteillage, Marie Fredette, Le Devoir, 28 et 29 aout, 2021
Oddness as Resistance: On the Trail of…, essay by Eve Dorais in The Constellation of Odd Occupations, 3e imperial, 2019
A Sense of Place , essay by Irene Loughlin in More Caught In The Act , YYZ Books, 2016
A Laying On of Hands: Four Artists , Stephen Horne, ESPACE, Spring 2016
Bleue a dessein , Chantal Paris, Portfolio, Spirale, No. 246, automne 2013
Nature a l’étude , Caroline Loncol Daigneault, opuscule pour Elle marche. Blue Mountain , OBORO, 2012
Perspective oblique : le dessin en hyperliens , Chantal Paris, ETC, vol 90, 2010
Behind The Scenes: Performances of Vida Simon , Stephen Horne, esse, Fall 2010
Embodiment and Process: Vida Simon , Stefan Zebrowski-Rubin, Art:21 blog, September 2010
Imagined Passage: Vida Simon/Excavation Drawings , Andrew Forster, FUSE, Summer 2007
Marcher en Russie, sur une installation de Vida Simon , Caroline Loncol Daigneault, ESPACE, Winter 2005
Doll Faced, Vida Simon’s storefront show , Lucinda Catchlove, HOUR, June 25-July 1, 1998
Worthy objects , Lucinda Catchlove, HOUR, February 13-19, 1997
Epatée, la galerie , Stéphane Aquin, VOIR, du 13 au 19 février 1997
Spinning yarns, Drawing on Vida Simon’s work , Lucinda Catchlove, HOUR, March 7-13, 1996
PUBLISHED WORK (selected)
L’univers bleu d’Anouka, wrote and illustrated children’s book published by Editions du Passage, Montreal, 2021
Artwork for book cover, The Face of the Quartzes, by Chus Pato, translated by Erin Moure, Veliz Books, 2021
Artwork for journal cover, Canada and Beyond, 2020
Artwork for cover of FURIOUS (30th anniversary reissue), book by Erin Moure, 2018
Artwork for cover of Paraguayan Sea, book by Wilson Bueno, translated by Erin Moure, 2017
Artwork for cover of The Unmemntioable, book by Erin Moure, 2012
Artwork for cover of Laboratoires parcellaires, published by La peuplade/Oboro, Qc, 2011
Artwork (multiple pages) for The Conservation, Restoration, and Repair of Stringed Instruments, ICPI, 2010
Artwork for My Beloved Wager, book by Erin Moure, 2009
Artwork for CD jacket of Dark Boat by Spanner, St. John’s, 2009
Drawing for broadside with poem by Chus Pato, translated by Erin Moure, Delirium Press, Montreal, 2006
INKLINGS, book of drawings, 2009 (published with assistance from CALQ)
Boréal Borscht, or A Malina Miniature, artist book published by Boréal Art/Nature and Souffles, 2008
Drawings and writing included in HARBOUR Magazine of Art & Everyday Life, 4 pages, Vol. 2, No. 4, 1993
TEACHING ART (selected)
2002-2019: Drawing workshops (small groups & private classes in my studio), Montreal
2013-2014: Commissioned by Fogo Island Inn (Newfoundland) to develop art workshops for guests and local community
1999-present: Visiting artist for various projects and workshops (universities, schools, galleries) across Canada and in France
1999-2009: Teacher for children, teenagers, adults (various art classes), Visual Arts Centre, Montreal
2008, 2010: Visual arts workshops for youth, Explorations Summer Program, McGill University, Montreal
2008: Drawing workshop for choreographers and dancers, Circuit-Est, Montreal
2006: Intensive Summer Drawing Workshop for Teens, Galerie Skol
2005: Intergenerational self-portrait drawing workshop, Santropol Roulant, Montreal
2004: Performative drawing workshop, Concordia University Community Development Summer Program
1996: Prop/Set/Costume designer for children's theatre, Saidye Bronfman Camp of the Arts, Montreal
ART-RELATED EMPLOYMENT & EXPERIENCES (selected)
2015–2017: Mentor for young immigrant artists through Programme D.A.M., Montreal
2004–present: freelance copy editor and proofreader for art publications, including esse Magazine, Montreal
2011: Commissioned to create projected drawings for children’s play, La bête à sept têtes, St. John’s, NL
2002–2008: Co-organizer (in collaboration with Jack Stanley) of projects for Souffles, a space that housed exhibitions, events, and workshops. Souffles evolved from a room under the stairs (1996–2000), a gallery located in our former apartment (projects included: installations by Rachel Echenberg, Monique Moumblow, Michael Fernandes, Kirsten Forkert, Andrew Forster, Nick Wade, Eduardo Aquino, Renee Poisson, Dagmar Dahle, Charles Gagnon, David Miller; writing workshop and book launches with poet Erin Moure; music by Sam Shalabi, Alexandre St-Onge, Christophe Migone, Rainer Wiens, Ganesh Anandan, Malcolm Goldstein, Hitoshi Kojo; discussions with Minerva Cuevas, Karen Spencer), Montreal
2000–2010: Founded and managed complex of artists’ studios (in collaboration with Jack Stanley), Montreal
2008: Commissioned to make props for The Girl With No Hands, play by Talya Rubin, Australia/Montreal
2000–2002: Documentaliste/Researcher, Artexte Information Centre, Montreal
1999–2003: Participant in The Play Group (collective of women performers), Montreal
2007–present: Videos A Folded Bridge and Lemon Juice and Salt screened internationally
1997–present: Artist's Talks: Concordia University (Montreal), Articule (Montreal), Helen Pitt Gallery (Vancouver), Open Studio (Toronto), Ace Art (Winnipeg), Galerie B-312 (Montreal), New Langton Arts (San Francisco), Baie-Saint-Paul Symposium, Alberta College of Art (Calgary), Porvoo Paperarts Centre (Finland), MOKS Centre for Art and Social Research (Estonia), Sally Studio Youth Art Programme (Estonia), University of Lethbridge, Eastern Edge (NL), Universidad Andres Bello (Chile), Videographe (Montreal), Kunstraum Walcheturm, (Zürich), NSCAD University (Halifax), Aberystwyth Arts Centre (Wales), Hochschule der Bildenden Künste (Germany), Fogo Island Arts (NL), Université de Sherbrooke, Dawson College (Montreal), College Brébeuf (Montreal), North Island College (BC), Emily Carr University (Vancouver).
WORKSHOPS & TRAINING
1994–present: Participated in various performance-related workshops (with Augusto Boal, Linda Montano, Deborah Hay, Yumiko Yoshioka, Andrew Harwood, Nicole Laudouar, Linda Rabin, Lin Snelling, Eddie Ladd, Moeno Wakamatsu, Tedi Tafel, Helge Meyer, Sylvie Tourangeau, Dorothea Rust, Pauline Oliveros, Victoria Stanton, Marilyn Arsem, Marcelle Hudon).
2001–2002: Improvisational sound apprenticeship with violinist/composer Malcolm Goldstein, Montreal .
2011: Writing & Illustrating Children’s Books workshop, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver .
2008: Training for artists to work in hospitals, The Creative Center, New York.
2004: Certificate in entrepreneurship for women artists, Compagnie F, Montreal.
AWARDS
Canada Council for the Arts, Project Grants: 1996, 1997, 2007, 2013, 2017, 2023
Canada Council for the Arts, Travel Grants: 1998, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2014
Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Quebec, Studio in Wales, 2011
Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Quebec, Research & Creation Grants: 1994, 1996, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022
Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Quebec, Travel Grants: 2003, 2007, 2010, 2014, 2018, 2020
Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Quebec, Jeune public Grant: 2006