Bear Breath > Torpor (Pace Investigations No.5)

Torpor (Pace Investigations No.5) is a performance artwork developed on site at Banff Centre for Art and Creativity during the Banff Research in Culture program, themed The Year 2067. Unfolding during dawn and dusk, Torpor (Pace Investigations No.5) takes on a time structure inspired by cycles of dormancy in bears.The time structure mimics the shift in average heart rate bears experience as they enter and exit torpor. The actions and materials of the performance are site-specific and the duration of the performance is precisely staggered. The same performance repeats 16 times during twilight hours on the same day. In each repetition, the performance duration is either increased or decreased by half. As this constriction and expansion of time occurs the performance must shift. Some actions that make up the performance speed up or slow down. Others merge to become different actions all together. Some are abandoned, while others gain significance. Regardless of how the performance adapts, the tension between mechanical, geological, and felt time is always palpable.


August 9, 2017
3:49am-6:20am and 9:14pm-11:43pm Mountain Time

Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
107 Tunnel Mountain Dr
Banff, AB T1L 1H5