After Nahed Mansour & Bojana Videkanic‘s final performance on Friday afternoon, festival supporters met downtown at Royal Canadian Legion #1. Art Club, explained Rita McKeough, meets there every Friday evening at the Legion. Over pints, Tomas Jonsson, McKeough, and M:ST board members Renato Vitic and Sonia Edworthy debriefed on the successes and failures of the 6th biannual festival.

Vitic expressed disappointment at the dearth of nudity, but reported that the floor of Truck is still sticky and will probably take weeks to clean. (Vitic was referring to TouVA Offspring Christina Mayder‘s honey-drenched performance.)

Jonsson remarked that, barring the situation in Lethbridge, there were surprisingly few injuries. Other topics ranged from visiting artist programs (at ACAD & the UofC) to lightbulb jokes, and of course, as is ubiquitous among artist-run types, real estate and property rentals.

“Q: How many performance artists does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: I don’t know, I left.” — McKeough.

“Q: How many relational aestheticists does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: One, but she gets a member of the public to do it for her.”

Karillyn Ming Ho (far left) and others at Stride Gallery on October 26.

By 8pm the group dispersed, and most headed over to Stride for dual openings: Karilynn Ming Ho‘s WHERE WHERE THERE THERE in the Project Space, and Brian Batista‘s colourful “3D” paintings of Hindu deities upstairs.

l-r: Tomas Jonsson & Pauline Cummins

Eduardo Oramas & Vicki Chau eat pop rocks.

On Wednesday evening at John Snow House, Andy Paterson gave a performative lecture on the history and archives of The New Gallery. It was well-attended by both artists and fans of local history, including ACAD instructor Shelley Ouellet and newly-arrived festival artists Nahed Mansour and Bojana Videkanic.

After the lecture, several artists stuck around drinking beer and discussing the festival. including Artistic Director Tomas Jonsson (who sat across from Paterson, giggling conspiratorially), New Gallery Administrative Director Su Strang, and JSH Director Kaylin Pearce.

After holding forth about the work of John Greyson and his fascination with squirrels, Andy listed a few of the videos his white lab coat had been featured in, including works by Greyson, Keith Cole, and a protest by AIDS Action Now.

Andy Paterson reading a poem, signed by one “K. Burns”, that he found in the New Gallery’s archives at John Snow House.

“I’m afraid she’s going to give performance art a bad name by fixating on the most sensational and stereotypical behaviour,” commented Artistic Director Tomas Jonsson. “She only mentions the art if it is messy, smelly or involves nudity!”

Festival blogger Megan Morman does not consider herself a writer, but rather a visual artist who makes performative, writing-based work. Sources say Morman was confirmed only a week before the festival started, after an early-morning meeting in which she swore she would do a good job reporting on M:ST’s nearly 60 artists.

Meanwhile, her roommate at John Snow House, video artist Andy Paterson (himself an experienced festival blogger), expressed concern over Morman’s excessive coffee consumption and erratic sleeping patterns.

Morman can be seen at most festival events, giggling and gesturing to herself while scribbling in a small notebook and poking confusedly at the buttons on her camera.

Festival Artistic Director Tomas Jonsson was spotted drinking at landmark Calgary watering hole The Unicorn around 5:30pm on October 23.

As well, an anonymous tipper claimed to have witnessed Jonsson biking without a helmet last week.

Keep safe, Tomas!

The small but dedicated audience lauded Frankovich’s clever use of material and ambition in climbing up and down the steep hills while wearing tent stakes tied to his shoes as high heels. Artistic Director Tomas Jonsson looked at points very nervous, and was overheard on his phone double-checking M:ST’s insurance coverage.

Bjorn Neukom’s purple baggies and orange duct tape will probably not lead to any lawsuits.

Sunday evening’s cabaret had been ravaged by several particularly messy performances. The strong smell from Björn Neukom‘s baggies filled with purple Pine Sol led to allegations of poisoning. In addition, flying chocolate sauce–both indoors and out–left disgruntled audience members with dry-cleaning bills.

Ironically, audience members could be heard commenting after MacKenzie Boyle & Karly Mortimer‘s performance that the sauce in their vase would have been stronger, conceptually, as cow or ox blood. As every fan of performance art knows, blood is both smellier and tougher to clean.

David Frankovich at the University of Lethbridge

Earlier in the day, the snow held off for Dong’s and Frankovich’s performances at the University of Lethbridge. Fans will be heartened to hear that the female roommate of the young man who shouted gay and trans-phobic slurs at Frankovich during hour 4 of the performance came out and apologized for his behaviour.

Dick Averns‘ caravan left the Epcor Centre shortly after 10:30am on Sunday. Missing was the vehicle carrying Les Fermières Obsédées, reportedly driven by a chronically-speeding, caffeine-addict volunteer. The caravan stopped in Claresholm for lunch at Roy’s Place, which sported a sign saying “Hippies Use Backdoor”.

MacKenzie Boyle & Karly Mortimer

After the lecture and performances at the SAAG, festivalgoers walked and drove around the city to half a dozen closed-for-Sunday-night bars before ending up at TenTen on Mayor Magrath Drive. The kitchen was closed, but artists munched on free popcorn and told stories of puking during and after performances.

An informant emailed this photo of Randy Gledhill to artgossip.ca.

At TenTen, Randy Gledhill made good on his promise to finish Wednesday’s story of his road trip with the Hell’s Angels. In this episode, they save him from another run-in with gayhippy-bashing cowboys, and, as thanks, he gets them high on weed.

Near the end of the night, confusion over where the visiting artists would stay became acute as people grew tired and tipsy. “I have no fucking idea where I am and I have no idea where I’m supposed to be!” exclaimed Andy Paterson. Artistic Director Tomas Jonsson left to book a hotel room while Sarah Jane Christensen ordered Domino’s pizza delivery directly to the bar.

“Despite concerns of random shootings on the 90kmh drive, Lethbians have been giving suggestions about car friendly activities to while away the trip. I spy, car bingo, making out with fellow passengers, art history homework, lego, lyrical jazz dance, filk singing…
Source: I know all.”

All interested parties are invited to meet at the Epcor Centre at 10:30am on Sunday, October 21st to carpool in a caravan down to Lethbridge. Safety in numbers!

“M:ST is considering rebranding itself to be pronounced like “MIST” The new names being discussed are “NUDE MIST” and “MIST.” The colon will be replaced with three dots to facilitate the new pronunciation.
Source: Performance.”

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l-r: Allison Cummings, Randy Gledhill, Chumpon Apisuk, Johanna Householder

After Allison Cummings’ performance at Epcor, artists gathered at the Old Y Centre, site of M:ST’s office. Eventually the conversation turned to wine, and the group left for a drink next door at Hop In Brew Pub.

Johanna Householder, Chumpon Apisuk, Randy Gledhill, and Allison Cummings launched into a discussion of Thai art politics, which soon turned into enthusiastic stories of drinking customs at the international festivals each had performed at. Drinking an Aprikat, the animated Gledhill recalled an anecdote about skyping with a “festive” Vasan Sitthiket at 4am Bangkok time.

Later, the group was joined by Terrance Houle, Dan Wilson, festival Artistic Director Tomas Jonsson, and, briefly, trans musician/heartthrob Rae Spoon, in town filming an NFB documentary.

See Johanna Householder and other Canadian performance luminaries perform W.O.R.K.S. tomorrow evening at the Royal Canadian Legion.