Stéphane Gladyszewski

There’s lots of craft in Montreal-based pluridisciplinary artist Stéphane Gladyszewski’s “In Side” and “Aura,” both presented at this year’s Festival de théâtre des Amériques. The recent graduate from the city’s Concordia University trained in photography, dance, sculpture, and video, and applies his technical know-how to studies using panels, props, bodies, sound and light. Impressive doubling images and intriguing dimensional illusions abound breaking the boundaries of the body.

People sometimes confuse the illusory aspect of his work, claiming it’s all show and no substance. But Gladyszewski’s smart, skillful, inventive work undeniably speaks volumes. The multi-faceted artist builds his ideas in a photographic-cinematographic manner with visual, optical research that treats the moving image. The aim is simple but not simplistic. Dena Davida, artistic director of Tangente, one of Montreal’s prime dance venues, says of Gladyszewski: “He is a new generation of multi-disciplinary artist, equally at home on a stage and in an art gallery. Profoundly interested in natural and cultural forces, his imagery at once disturbs and enlightens.”
You may have seen Gladyszewski performing in ...