The 29th edition of SummerWorks Festival was curated through the lens of many questions. Faced with increasingly polarized views on equality, the climate, land rights, immigration, gentrification and freedom of speech circulating on the news and media, we found ourselves asking: Is this for real?
Running through the works was also a consideration of ‘public’: what is public space, how is it made and negotiated? What is the impact of making something public? And what is the power of the public to enact change? Many works considered new possibilities for the public sphere, animating space to rediscover, engage with, and celebrate the Festival neighbourhood in new ways.
Continuing to push the boundaries and explore the possibilities of performance, SummerWorks 2019 invited audiences to go on a digital scavenger hunt in a public library, get paid to contribute to a meditation on labour and consent, imagine possible futures at the ends of the earth, hear the words of children from the mouths of adults, attempt to form a democracy in a time of scarcity, and travel the streets and consider how the city has changed.
The SummerWorks Exchange offered conversations, workshops, pitch sessions and more focused around the concept of ‘making space’ as it related to accessibility and sustainability practices, reconnecting with the land through an Indigenous lens, and site-specific creation.
SummerWorks continues to be a space for openness to question, for bold new ideas, for reimagining what’s possible together, and for making change. During this Festival, it felt like this room for inquiry, this openness, this space for public discourse, was more important than ever.
St Peon of Parkdale - photo by Henry Chan
Reservations to Revelations - photo by Henry Chan
hiraeth - photo by Henry Chan
des echoes - photo by Henry Chan
Deafy - photo by Henry Chan
Long Table - photo by Henry Chan
Worry Warts - - photo by Henry Chan
Gender Reveal Party - photo by Henry Chan
Fadeout - photo by Henry Chan
CHILD-ISH - photo by Henry Chan
Clowns Kill Empires - photo by Henry Chan
Worry Warts - photo by Henry Chan
Antarctica - photo by Henry Chan
8054821 - photo by Henry Chan
Crossing Into Lullaby - photo by Henry Chan
The Nine Brains of the Human Mind - photo by Henry Chan
Greenland - photo by Henry Chan
Late Night - photo by Henry Chan
The Archive of Missing Things - photo by Henry Chan
Closer - photo by Henry Chan
Closer - photo by Henry Chan
Opening Night - photo by Henry Chan
The Breath Between - photo by Henry Chan
photo by Henry Chan
Gender Reveal Party - photo by Henry Chan
Wah Wah Wah - photo by Henry Chan
Opening Night - photo by Henry Chan
I AM A GENIUS DOES ANYONE ERE KNOW ME - photo by Henry Chan
Fadeout - photo by Henry Chan
Creating Sign Language Magic - photo by Henry Chan
Opening Night - photo by Henry Chan
burn, burned - photo by Henry Chan
Encumbrance - photo by Henry Chan
Deafy - photo by Henry Chan
Rohinton Mistry's The Scream - photo by Henry Chan
Industry Welcome - photo by Henry Chan
hiraeth - photo by Henry Chan
Cliff Cardinal's CBC Special - photo by Henry Chan
I AM A GENIUS DOES ANYONE ERE KNOW ME - photo by Henry Chan
Pitch Seassion - photo by Henry Chan
Greenland - photo by Henry Chan
Those on the Surface - photo by Henry Chan
Opening Night - photo by Henry Chan
8054821 - photo by Henry Chan
Open Hours - photo by Henry Chan
Opening Night - photo by Henry Chan
Clowns Kill Empires - photo by Henry Chan
Audible Songs from Rockwood - photo by Henry Chan
Opening Night - photo by Henry Chan
Worry Warts - photo by Henry Chan
Footnote Number 12 - photo by Henry Chan
The Nine Brains of the Human Mind - photo by Henry Chan
Bonjour, Hi - photo by Henry Chan
Reeces Pieces - photo by Henry Chan
CHILD-ISH - photo by Henry Chan
Public Good - photo by Henry Chan
Those on the Surface - photo by Henry Chan
Info Fair - photo by Henry Chan
Opening Night - photo by Henry Chan
Audible Songs from Rockwood - photo by Henry Chan
Fly Lady Di - photo by Henry Chan
Industry Welcome - photo by Henry Chan
rochdale - photo by Henry Chan
rochdale - photo by Henry Chan
Safe and Sorry - photo by Henry Chan
Creating Sign Language Magic - photo by Henry Chan
Safe and Sorry - photo by Henry Chan
Footnote Number 12 - photo by Henry Chan
Reservations to Revelations - photo by Henry Chan
Black Ballerina - photo by Henry Chan
Opening Night - photo by Henry Chan
des echoes - photo by Henry Chan
Opening Night - photo by Henry Chan
Closer - photo by Henry Chan
Opening Night - photo by Henry Chan
Rohinton Mistry's The Scream - photo by Henry Chan
Info Fair - photo by Henry Chan
Clowns Kill Empires - photo by Henry Chan
Open Studios - photo by Henry Chan
The Archive of Missing Things - photo by Henry Chan
Deafy - photo by Henry Chan
Bonjour, Hi - photo by Henry Chan
Black Ballerina - photo by Henry Chan
Greenland - photo by Henry Chan
The BReath Between - photo by Henry Chan
Moving Publics - photo by Henry Chan
St Peon of Parkdale - photo by Henry Chan