The Edgy Women Festival (also referred to as Edgy Redux, Femmes Au-delà or Women from the Edge) was an annual festival of "short, highly physical works by women, often characterized by a transdisciplinary approach and politicized content." which ran for 23 years from 1994 to 2016. Presented by

Studio 303 A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery (ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial design, ...

, a dance and interdisciplinary-arts centre in

Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pea ...

, Canada, Edgy Women focuses on

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

perspectives with workshops and forums, performance events, and socializing. Studio 303's artistic and general manager Miriam Ginestier programmed Edgy Women from 1995 to 2014.

Origins & History

Edgy originated in 1994 when dancer, choreographer, and Performance Mix-producer Karen Bernard from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

came to

with 2 other artists to present a shared program. Bernard called this first program "Women from the Edge' but Ginestier changed the name to 'Edgy Women' for the next iteration.

Early years

1994 - 2005: 1 night event, expanded to 4 nights. 2001: 10 pieces, 2 days. Artists from NYC and Montreal included Alexis O’Hara, Women With Kitchen Appliances (Veg-Omatic) and

Marie Brassard Marie Brassard is a Canadian actress,Histoire du théâtre au Canada'. Graduate Centre for Study of Drama, University of Toronto; 1990. p. 158. theatrical writer and director. She is known for her work with playwright and actor Robert LepageNew Yo ...

(Jimmy, Creature De Reve)

2005 - 2012

2005: featured (among others) Nathalie Claude,

Dayna McLeod Dayna McLeod (born 1972) is a Montreal based performance artist and video artist whose work often includes topics of feminism, queer identity, and sexuality. She has a Diploma in Sculpture from the Alberta College of Art and Design and an M.F.A. i ...

and Alexis O'Hara, expanded to three venues to accommodate visiting all-woman art band, Les Reines Prochaines from

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

Canadian Heritage The Department of Canadian Heritage, or simply Canadian Heritage (french: Patrimoine canadien), is the Ministry (government department), department of the Cabinet of Canada, Government of Canada that has roles and responsibilities related to init ...

provided the funding that helped Edgy grow to a 1 week event as well as add performers from outside of Quebec. 2006: Edgy officially became a festival of 10 days to three weeks after

Canada Council The Canada Council for the Arts (french: Conseil des arts du Canada), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It acts as the federal government's principal i ...

, Inter-Arts office provided festival funding for 2 years. 2009:

Jess Dobkin Jess Dobkin (born 1970) is a performance artist based in Toronto, Canada. She is best known for her 2006 work ''The Lactation Station''. She has a B.A. in Women’s Studies from Oberlin College, and an M.F.A. in Performance Art from Rutgers U ...

- Being Green 2011:

Annie Sprinkle Annie M. Sprinkle (born Ellen F. Steinberg on July 23, 1954) is an American certified sexologist, performance artist, former sex worker, and advocate for sex work and health care. Citing: Sprinkle has worked as a prostitute, sex educator, femi ...

Beth Stephens Elizabeth M. "Beth" Stephens (born November 18, 1960) is an American filmmaker, artist, sculptor, photographer, professor and two time Chair of the Art Department at UC Santa Cruz. Stephens, who describes herself as " ecosexual", collaborates wi ...

- Adventures of the Love Art Lab.

2013: 20th Anniversary - Theme: Art / Sport / Gender

Cassils - Becoming An Image Edgy Lucha featuring professional female wrestlers

2014 - 2016: Edgy Redux

2016: Edgy: The End (final edition)

''“Edgy: The End included an obituary (honouring the 500+ artists involved), a memorial service (where I selected video archives to screen and offered live commentary during Montreal’s Nuit Blanche), and a funeral cabaret-wake where the co-hosts Nathalie Claude and Dayna McLeod took the audience through the five stages of grief. It was an amazing finale.”'' - Miriam Ginestier, former artistic director

Partner Venues

2005:

La Sala Rossa LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * La (musical note), or A, the sixth note * "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figure ...

2009: Tangente 2013: Blue Cat Boxing Club 2016:

Lion d’Or cabaret The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large cat of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphic; adult ...

People

Artists

Dayna Mcleod Dayna McLeod (born 1972) is a Montreal based performance artist and video artist whose work often includes topics of feminism, queer identity, and sexuality. She has a Diploma in Sculpture from the Alberta College of Art and Design and an M.F.A. i ...

(performance & video artist / curator) - 10x,

Alexis O'Hara Alexis O'Hara is a Canadian transdisciplinary performer, born in Ottawa, Ontario, and currently living and working in Montreal, Quebec. Since 1997, she has been active in the Montreal cabaret and experimental music scenes. O'Hara ran the Montreal ...

(spoken word / sound / performance artist) - 10x, Nathalie Claude (theatre artist / clown) - 9x, Karen Bernard (dancer / choreographer) - 9x, Tonija Livingstone - 6x,

(performance artist) - 4x,

Karen Sherman Karen may refer to: * Karen (name), a given name and surname * Karen (slang), a term and meme for a demanding woman displaying certain behaviors People * Karen people, an ethnic group in Myanmar and Thailand ** Karen languages or Karenic la ...

- 4x, Lamathilde (video artist),

(theatre artist),

Céline Bonnier Céline Bonnier (; born August 31, 1965) is a French Canadian actress from Quebec. She has been nominated for four awards including Genie Awards and Gemini Awards. Filmography * 1992: ''Tectonic Plates'' * 1994: ''The Wind from Wyoming (Le V ...

(actress),

Coral Short Coral Short (born 1973) is a queer Canadian multimedia artist and curator. Based in Berlin and Montreal, they are best known for their performance art, as a curator of short film programs, and as a creator of affordable queer artist residencies. ...

(performance artist),

Les Fermières Obsédées Les Fermières Obsédées (F.O., "Obsessed Farm Wives") is a contemporary Québécois feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and socia ...

(Quebec City),

Jennifer Miller Jennifer Miller (born 1961) is an American circus entertainer, writer, and professor at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. She has lived with a beard for most of her life. She is a juggler and fire eater. Miller lives in New York City. Biog ...

(USA),

Mirha-Soleil Ross Mirha-Soleil Ross is a transgender videographer, performance artist, sex worker and activist. Her work since the early 1990s in Montreal and Toronto has focused on transsexual rights, access to resources, advocacy for sex workers and animal rights ...

, Edwige Jean-Pierre.

Curators and Artistic Directors

1994: Karen Bernard & Paul Caskey 1995 - 2013: Miriam Ginestier 2014: Miriam Ginestier & Andrea Joy Rideout 2015 & 2016: Andrea Joy Rideout

Funding & Closure

In 2006 festival funding was secured via the Inter-arts office at the

. This lasted only 2 years due to eligibility criteria and changing programs. Over the years, funding ranged from $0 to $20,000. In 2013 when Studio 303 lost its

funding, Edgy was reduced down to 3 events and renamed Edgy Redux until its final season in 2016. There is speculation that this massive loss of funding was due to the Conservative government targeting organizations that specialized in working with women, queer and racialized artists.

Ethos & Curatorial Approach

Despite the name, Edgy Women was not gender exclusive, neither to audiences nor performers. Although infrequent, it was not unheard of to see either cis and trans male performers on the line up. Regarding her curatorial approach to the festival, Ginestier has said, “I was actively seeking weirdness, stuff that’s subversive, or a bit controversial, that might upset some people.” Queer-feminist artist, activist and scholar, T.L. Cowan says, “There was a sexual culture that was central to the aesthetics, the audience energy, and to the commitment both to provocation and safety.” Theatre artist, scholar and Hysteria: A Festival of Women curator, Moynan King has said, “I think there’s an element of camp, for sure. There’s also an element of disidentification (

Muñoz Muñoz ( or ) is a Spanish language, Spanish-language surname—with a Portuguese language, Portuguese-language variant (Munhoz (surname), Munhoz), from Basque "muinoa" (Hill), the surname got expanded during the Reconquista with massive settlements ...

) in a way, like an awareness that sometimes we’re reclaiming and reconfiguring our own phobic stereotypes. It’s a way of inhabiting history, maybe, or having a history?”

Legacy & Influence

According to

Montreal Gazette The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of th ...

journalist Victor Swoboda, “Edgy’s provocative feminist and gender-bending performances have helped define Montreal as an open-minded, inquisitive arts town” and may have helped launch the career of

Dana Michel Dana Michel (born in Ottawa) is a choreographer and performer based in Montreal. She is part of the contemporary dance company Par B.L.eux founded by Benoît Lachambre. Biography Prior to her dance career, Dana Michel was a marketing executive ...

with an early solo at the 2006 edition. Edgy collaborated often, intimately and aesthetically with Moynan King’s Hysteria: A Festival of Women from 2003 - 2009. Ginestier once took Edgy artists to Ljubljiana, Slovenia to perform in The City of Women festival. The creative kinship was strong but the inter-continental logistics were too prohibitive to subsequent collaborations. Edgy is mentioned as one of Canada’s few LGBT2Q performance festivals in Paul J. Halferty’s 2014 journal article for Theatre Research in Canada. In June 2016, Karen Bernard invited Miriam Ginestier to curate the event “EDGY NYC + MTL” In honour of the 30th anniversary of Performance Mix Festival produced by New Dance Alliance at Abrons Art Centre in New York City.{{Cite news, last=Barone, first=Joshua, date=26 Mar 2016, title=Performance Mix Festival: he Arts/Cultural Deskwork=New York Times, url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1775764849, access-date=Dec 13, 2021, id={{ProQuest, 1775764849

References

External links

Official websiteEdgy Women blogEdgy Oral History ProjectEdgy on vimeoStudio 303 flickr
Art festivals in Canada Festivals in Montreal Women's festivals Women in Montreal