Jil Guyon

Jil Guyon is a multidisciplinary visual and performing artist. Her work has been described as “new, dramatic, beautifully executed” (Ms. Magazine) and “moving, an emotional labyrinth” (Die Presse, Vienna). Her recent film Rouyn Noranda was filmed by Quebec artist, Beatriz Mediavilla.

Guyon’s productions have been presented at theaters, cinemas, museums, galleries, and concert halls worldwide, including Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, Queens Museum, Museum of the Moving Image, and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

As part of the Toronto Urban Film Festival, curated by filmmaker Guy Maddin, her performance video, Widow, was screened throughout the Toronto mass transit system, averaging over 2 million viewers per day. Her critically acclaimed multimedia dance-theater piece, At the Borders of Eternity, based on the Diary of Anne Frank, was staged at WUK Wien (Vienna) during a brief period when the far-right took political power in Austria. It was televised throughout the country and was the first theatrical work granted exclusive use of the diary. The video recording resides in the Kulturarchiv Wein.

Guyon has collaborated and performed with many notable artists such as video/performance pioneer Joan Jonas, choreographer Noemie Lafrance, vocalist Helga Davis, singer/songwriter Amanda Palmer (Dresden Dolls), and the satirical butoh group Celeste Hastings and The Butoh Rockettes.

Jil is a Lumiere prize (Canada) nominee and a recipient of the Tarkovski grant and numerous awards in experimental film. She was previously Curatorial Associate at Neue Galerie New York where she designed and wrote the Schiele and Contemporary Culture section of the Egon Schiele catalogue raisonné that accompanied the exhibition. She holds an MFA in painting and art history from Hunter College where she studied with art critic and theorist Rosalind Krauss, and sculptor Robert Morris.

Rouyn Noranda (Cinédanse film)
Rouyn Noranda features a lone woman drifting through a bleak industrial wasteland. The desolation of her interior world is both reflected in and witnessed by the toxic environmental terrain she is compelled to traverse. Eschewing traditional narrative progression, the film follows the protagonist’s actions through a series of languorous panoramas, fixed shots, and close-ups—evoking a world equally beautiful and terrifying.

Back to 2023 Artist Roster | Back to 2023 Performance Mix Festival