Marie-Andree Robitaille

Artist in Residence

Supporting Organization:

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Based in: Sweden
Participated in: Stockholm Local Urban Lab

Marie-Andrée Robitaille is a multidisciplinary artist, pedagogue and researcher. She holds a PhD in fine arts in performative and media-based practices, specializing in choreography from Stockholm University of the Arts (2024). Robitaille has extensive experience as a professional artist, project manager, and educator in performing arts and higher education. Prior to her professional career in performing arts, she studied human sciences while training as a dancer at École de Danse de Québec and as a circus artist at the National Circus School in Montréal, Canada. Since 1998, Marie-Andrée has worked as a circus performer, dancer, choreographer, director, teacher, head of studies, talent scout and producer, notably with Cirkus Cirkör, Cirque du Soleil and CirkusPerspektiv. From 2009 to 2018, she was an assistant professor of circus, the artistic leader and head of the bachelor’s degree programme in circus at Stockholm University of the Arts. In her doctoral project, Circus as Practices of Hope: A Philosophy of Circus, she focused on alternative modes of composition as a method to support the further articulation of a philosophy of circus that highlights circus-specific kinetic, aesthetic, and embodied knowledge, situating circus arts as hopeful practices for the future. Her current research interests encompass choreography, composition, design, performative and kinetic new materialisms, posthuman ethics, embodiment, and transdisciplinarity.

Semaphore Dialogues; Signals of Change, 2024

The Semaphore Dialogues: Signals of Change is part of the Turning the Tide International Artists’ Residencies program hosted by Intercult in Stockholm between August and December 2024. 
During the residency period, Marie-Andree Robitaille explored the historic network of semaphores in the Baltic Archipelago, drawing analogies to contemporary issues of climate change.
The semaphore, a precursor to modern digital communication, serves as a powerful metaphor for the transmission of signals and information.
Through this project, Robitaille reimagined these structures, engaging the local community of Blivande and Frihamnstoget with a workshop entitled «Hope in Motion» which aimed at fostering dialogues and actions for developing the ability to move together, as hopeful responses to the ecological challenge we are facing. 
This digital exposition visually maps parts of this artistic process.
The Semaphore Dialogues: Signals of Change has been made possible with the support of and in collaboration with the people at Intercult, Blivande, Studio Tau, Frihamnstorget, Extinction Rebellion, Kulturhuset Favorit, Ukrainska Creative Studio Favoritthe Inner Development Goals, and CirkusPerspektiv.