Elapse I & II by k.g. Guttman

Book Launch: Thursday, January 18th, 2007 @ 6-9pm



80 pp, offset, soft cover, sewn binding selfcover,
text and full colour illustrations

Edition of 500 - $30 each
Item# c05588 Purchase

Special Edition available:
includes photo dyptich, signed and numbered edition of 30

Edition of 30 - $90 each

Art Metropole is pleased to launch Elapse I & II by Montreal artist k.g. Guttman in collaboration with Amsterdam designers Niels Schrader and Olivier Arcioli. The book documents the artist's choreographic project of the same name, Elapse I & II. In celebration of her thirtieth birthday, k.g. Guttman threw a duplicate party event. Invitations to participate in Elapse I & II read as follows:

Elapse I   Rehearsal   April 7th/05 12-3pm

1. Arrive
2. Wear the same clothes at both parties
3. Eat and drink
4. Leave when you want

Elapse II   Performance   April 8th/05 12-3pm

1. Arrive at the same time as the day before
2. Wear the same thing at both parties
3. Re-enact to the best of your ability/memory what you said/did the day before/eat and drink what you ate the day before
4. Leave when you left the day before

Whenever possible, help others repeat. Must attend both parties to participate!!

Deliberately subverting a dancer's sense for precision and perfection, k.g. launched strangers and friends into the near-impossible task of re-enactment. Reactions ranged from earnest attempt to outright scorn, with results ranging from extraordinary reproduction to the gorgeous sloppiness of human behaviour. Elapse I & II draws to the surface the startling process of memory in action. The artist invites you to see the results of the event distilled in book form.

The artist will be in attendance and the event will be accompanied by the live music by Reena Katz.

About the Artist

k.g. Guttman is a Montreal-based artist who works in performance, dance, drawing, and video. As a professsional dancer, she has worked at LeGroupe Dance Lab in Ottawa from 1999-2004, and currently freelances. She has presented her choreography across Canada and internationally. In 1997 she was awarded the Brian Webb Choreography Prize, and in 2001 the Dennis Tourbin Emerging Artist Award (Saw Gallery, Ottawa). She has developed her video, performance, drawing and print work through residencies and exhibitions throughout Canada and Europe. k.g. is currently pursuing her MFA at Concordia University in Montreal, and has studied at the reputed school DasArts, Advanced Studies in Performance, in Amsterdam. In 2007/08, she will participate in a residency for emerging artists at the Pavillon, Palais de Tokyo, in Paris.


Art Metropole thanks the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council, as well as private donors for their support.