Éveline Boudreau

A multidisciplinary artist, Éveline Boudreau currently works in performance art. Trained first in sociology, education, and then in visual art, she obtained a master’s degree in education from the University of Ottawa while teaching kinesiology. A special intention to the body was then implanted in her! Upon arriving in SK, she switched to teaching French, which she still does part-time. Always interested in the visual arts, she obtained a bachelor’s degree in visual art from the University of Saskatchewan in 1998. She was active in many organisations; including, among others, AGAVF (Association des groupes en arts visuels francophones), CARFAC-SK,CARFAC-National, PAVED Arts, and others; also including Free Flow Dance Co. with which she works on the board of directors.

Following a three-month artist residency at the Banff Art Center in 2001, SloMo Artist Residency, with 35 artists from 9 countries, her interest and passion for novelty continued. Since 2014, she has attended and participated as a presenter at the annual international conference, The Art in Society.

Her artistic accomplishment currently resides above all in performance art where the body, time, and space constitute the basic materials. During her performances, Boudreau suggests themes, and conversations take place between her and her interlocutors. During these interactions, processes of collaboration and reflection take place. The topics she addresses include identity, technology, and violence against women. These are what concern her and what she shares about, questions, and transmits to whoever listens. For example, during a trans-Canadian project in 2018, installed in public and surrounded by plaster masks, she began conversations with people who stopped by her; they chat, even discuss, the use of the internet and of identity.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, she launched an online project dedicated to the many female victims of violence. Starting in March 2021, as part of International Women’s Day, Boudreau will perform a weekly, silent performance; a pose of her, symbolic of the lives of women suffering from violence and their silence. Three photos (two related to the performance) and a text of the hour are presented each week on her Instagram account. But now, after a year, Instagram deletes this account of the artist Boudreau! Just like these many female victims of violence, silence is imposed on the artist…

For Beaudreau, performance resides in verbal communication and in its movement, and/or body statics through which spectators experience cognitive destabilisation. A meaning tickles their gaze and attention, finishing by touching their minds. For, beyond the spectacle or verbal exchange lies meaning: a meaning is established. For the performing artist, movement and/or pose speak, accompanied by speech and/or silence. The internal meaning animates them. In expressing her concerns, her perception of things around her, she communicates, and learns.