Abstract

This study focuses on the complex construct of multilayered social identities internalized by Italian-Québécois artists and how it is manifested in their artwork. These experiences find expression through various artistic forms, contents, and practices. Practitioners in theater, film, and musical production sectors are featured. Through video and audio excerpts captured during several encounters I examine how the political landscape and the subjects’ parents’ experience of immigration impinged on the artistic process and production. A video documentary constitutes the essential part of the research-creation approach, which the present written component complements.
The study demonstrates how artists connect their Italian ethnicity to a creative practice to achieve a sense of balance between family traditions, personal identity, and belonging. The artists’ personal and artistic developments are marked by lived and imprinted memories. The transmemoric process is a method adopted by the artists that allows such memories to be mediated by the form of the creative practice into production of the works. How this negotiation informs, qualifies, and ultimately leads to a distinct artistic patrimony is examined.

Video: The Creative Journey Of Marco Calliari. Rough-Cut doucmentary about the creative and artistic journey of Montreal-born of Italian origin Marco Calliari. Musician, composer, singer and songwriter, Marco offers a visual and intimate account of the challenges that ethnic artists face when producing their work in Montreal, Qc.