| BIOGRAPHICAL INFO | JOELLE CIONA j o e l l e c i o n a @ y a h o o . c a |
| Joelle Ciona was born in 1968 in
Saskatchewan, Canada. She now lives and works in Vancouver, Canada. Her
performance practice encompasses sculpture, video, sound composition,
and architecture. Ciona relies on emotional intelligence and intuition in the creation of her process-based work. Endurance-oriented, her projects address the experience of the performer at work while being observed, the experience of the performer while working without observation and the relationship of the audience to the work in terms of both a one-time view and a recurring experience. In her performance, she allows the meaning in an action to surface without predetermining what that meaning will be. Her actions are contained by spatial constructions or time-based structures. Her work explores repetition, how duration transforms meaning, and the testing of limitations. Ciona's architectural training reveals itself in the spatial, rational and structural aspects of her projects. Ciona is curious about insects. Since 1998 she has been using them as thematic vehicles in her explorations of inhabitation, dwelling and the creation of intimate spaces. Joelle completed "Inhabitation - Vancouver: The Unseen Interval" in July of 2003. A seven month performance / installation, it is the most extensive "Inhabitation" project to date in both size and duration. This Canada Council and BC Arts Council funded project included interventions by Argentinean sculptor Dina González Mascaró, and local electroacoustic composer Jean Routhier. A microcosmic version of this work was presented as "Inhabitation - dadabase" a one-day body-nest performance for XENO gallery in February of 2003. In April of 2004, she presented the results of "Inhabitation - Vancouver: The Unseen Interval" at the Grunt Gallery, installing the "nest" and then expanding, building and performing further. Ciona represented Canada at Yokohama 2001: International Triennale of Contemporary Art, in Japan from September to November, 2001. For the Triennale she performed "Inhabitation - Yokohama" a one-month performance - installation masticating traditional Japanese paper in order to create a nest for herself. She also engaged in three spontaneous collaborations with Japanese artists. In October 2001 her video "condensation" was installed at the Canadian Embassy Gallery in Tokyo. She has presented work across Canada and the United States as well as in Austria, Mexico, and Argentina. In 2000, she performed Rêverie Lucide ("Inhabitation - Montréal") for six-days in a storefront window for La Centrale's "Le Mois de la Performance" festival in Montréal and participated in an international residency at The Banff Centre for the Arts. |