12. City of women International festival of Contemporary Arts
Genevieve Castrée – WOELV / Qui va nous apprendre a se tenir debout?/ Who will show us how to stand up?

01 October 2006 > 10 October 2006 Exhibition opening and concert

www.opaon.ca
Genevieve Castrée alias WOELV, Canadian comic artist, singer, guitarist and songwriter, gives us an excerpt from her book-record in progress entitled Tout Seul dans la Foret en Plein Jour (All Alone in the Woods on an Ordinary Day). Her recent comics and songs make a clear statement against the American crusade against terrorism, which is – for an author known for her poetic and introspective stories – a rather distinctive thematic shift. Genevieve’s narrative features a girl, hair ruffled and dressed in anguish, who finds friends and lovers in the woods and mountains, among bears and monkeys, in bars and factories, between cats, people and robots. In a decade of creative process, Genevieve Castrée's wild inner world has become more accessible, her drawings seem purified and placid, but this sensation may be deceptive. Accompanied by fragile, mainly acoustic songs, which complement her graphic novels, the walk through woods on an ordinary day may transform into facing the fears of night...
WOELV – the musical countenance of Genevieve Castrée – is, in her own words, an addition to and completion of a lot more exhausting comic work. Accompanied by guitar, drums and harmonium, she plays her own compositions, namely those tender dreamy songs recorded on her 2004 Pamplemoussi album, as well as this year's single Gris. She sings in Québéçois French with a very strange accent, which sounds unusual even to the natives of her hometown Québec. The reason behind this may be that WOELV understands her maiden voice as an instrument that shifts from the semantics of language and willingly succumbs to the intensive feeling of the music and lyrics. She says that these songs ''should speak of peace and justice. I believe that the only positive thing about conflict – any conflict – is its end… ''
Tea Hvala

Comics Workshop will be held on Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th October from 10 am to 2 pm in Alkatraz Gallery, AKC Metelkova City. (see workshops)

Genevieve Castrée

is one of many artistic names of the 25-year-old Canadian comic artist and musician Genevieve Gosselin. These days she lives in the Pacific Northwest and has been drawing comics since 1996 when she produced her first photocopied mini comic books. Genevieve publishes her stories in various comic magazines, and has hitherto created four books: Die Fabrik (2002), published in Germany by Reprodukt; together with Lait Frappé (2000), Roulatheque Roulatheque Nicolore (2001) and Pamplemoussi (2004), released by l'Oie de Cravan, a Montréal-based publisher of poetry. Pamplemoussi features the author's music, while the American label K Records is to release the score of Tout Seul dans la Foret en Plein Jour, her largest work to date, which has been in production since 2004. She has presented excerpts from this book at festivals and solo exhibitions in Calgary (Canada), Tokyo (Japan), Los Angeles and New York (USA). After this stop at the City of Women Festival she will stage exhibitions and concerts in Australia and New Zealand.
Curator: Igor Prassel
Organisation: City of Women In collaboration with: Galerija Alkatraz/AKC Metelkova mesto, StripBurger/Forum Ljubljana