The Infringement Festival is launching its 2009 program today, June 18th. The festival is entering its 6th year as a Montreal and International festival. This year’s line-up features artists from a variety of mediums. On display will be Music acts, Visual Artists, Performance artists, Spoken word poets, and of course Theatre acts.
One of the more interesting and unusual acts this year is called “Love Toast Text Haiku” by Indiana artist Missa Coffman. She will be receiving “love” themed text messages in the form of a haiku poem and then transcribing the messages onto pieces of toast. She will then take a picture of these hot and toasty poems and resend the image to whoever sent her the message or a person of the author’s choice.
This year visual artists will be putting their works on display at Barfly. Some works will be on display from June 18th to June 28th. while a vernissage will be taking place at Barfly on June 25 from 6 to 10pm to formally premiere the pieces. On display will be 5 Montreal painters and mixed medium artists including Kayla Williamson, Mr. Saad, Stephanie Laughlin, Alexandra Cuellar, and Chris Zacchia. The event is being curated by Kayla Williamson and further inquires regarding exhibition at the festival can be made through the Infringement web site.
The line-up of musical acts at this year’s fest promises to please featuring a range of artists from rock, spoken word, and new this year hip-hop acts. The trio of PsynLangwage, performing: Speak With Our Hands on July 19th at 9pm, will be performing at les 3 Minots. As well Edmonton based hip-hop artist Ira Lee will be performing. On a different note: “R-Rated Rockstar” sensation, Josh Smith will be performing his unique variety of stand-up comedy, and something resembling spoken word. The show will be on Wednesday, June 24 at Cagibi 5490 St-Laurent.
The festival also has a variety of rock acts worth checking out, one of which is Les NECROPHILIACS, a “zombie-rock & psycho-punk horrific and demented band.” Who will be playing Barfly, Thursday June 25th at 8pm. Also definitely worth a look are Darling Ghost, Disorder, and Orange Monsoon playing the opening night of the festival (June 18th) at Barfly.
The last vital element of this festival is the theatrical shows. Two shows of interest this year are of course, Car Stories, and Journal intime de Montréal. Car stories is a theatrical experiment/journey through the streets of Montreal, all the while watching theatre from the back seat of numerous cars. Journal intime de Montréal in a street theatre piece being preformed by two French actors flying in from France for this Festival. Their art is inspired by the people they meet during the day. An evening street performance will be different everyday, a kind of diary of a city and the people who live in it, their rebellions, their engagements, their dreams, their hopes…
With all this weird stuff going on, the Infringement festival boasts something for everyone, and well if they don’t have anything mainstream enough for you, then “Fuck You!” and have a nice day, as they would say.
