To celebrate the opening of the new WA Museum Boola Bardip (Many Stories), project participants whose voices are included in the Forest of Voices exhibition are invited to share their stories with the public in conversation with artist Olga Cironis.
This conversation leads the audience through Forest of Voices and explores this project in the context of Cironis’ practice. Three of the participants who took part in the project will tell their personal narratives about how love has manifested in their lives.
The conversation runs for an hour, followed by a Q&A session, where refreshments will be provided, allowing further discussion with the artist and participants.
Due to the limit of seating capacity under WA government COVID guidelines, registering for this event is essential. This event will be live streamed via our Facebook page, so you can also join us in the comfort of your own home.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
OLGA CIRONIS | Artist
Olga Cironis is a multidisciplinary artist who explores the murky undertones and impact that history and memory have on personal and shared identity. She examines the notions of belonging in today’s cultural globalisation — in particular, appropriated histories and accepted attitudes on belonging in the Australian cultural and social landscape. Within her work are layers of research, collected stories, muted voices and cultural heritage. Cironis’ work is psychologically loaded with meaning, provoking and seducing the viewer, navigating them through history and inviting them to question our social and environmental connections. By engaging viewers to become part of her work, Cironis questions the meaning of public and private space, gender and social norms that permeate our accepted actions. Her artistic investigations are founded upon her Greek, Czech and Australian heritage. These aspects are used to engage people beyond the familiar.
PAOLA ANSELMI | Facilitator
Paola Anselmi is a Perth-based visual arts and public art curator and arts writer. Currently a PhD candidate at the University of Western Australia researching the development of WA art photography in the interwar period. Paola is a regular contributor to Australian arts publications on Western Australian contemporary art practice and has published numerous catalogue texts and has more recently contributed the essay “When I’m with you it’s personal” (2020) to Olga Cironis’ upcoming monograph publication. Since 1990 she has held curatorial and research roles at the Art Gallery of WA where she curated the first major survey exhibition of Ian Burn’s early work Ian Burn; Minimal-Conceptual Work 1965-1970 (1992), Royal Perth Hospital Art Collection, City of Fremantle Art Collection, City of Perth, Centre for Contemporary Art Luigi Pecci, Prato, Italy. She has served on the Mark Howlett Foundation Board; Art Angels Inc., Museums Australia, WA; the Royal Perth Hospital Art Committee and Artsource Board and is currently a member of the Artistic Panel at the Perth Centre for Photography.
VALERIE WEYLAND | Founder of Brown Girl Bloom
Valerie Weyland is an explorer at heart, always open to what life may bring. She is a business owner, meditation facilitator, health + wellness coach, and a reiki healer. She is Nigerian-American and was born and raised in Inglewood, California. She is the founder of Brown Girl Bloom, a safe space for women of colour to thrive with a focus on holistic wellbeing. She runs group meditations, one on one energy healing sessions and wellness workshops/retreats that focus on inner healing and discovery. She believes that we all hold an integral role in the collective movement of togetherness,
STELLA SULAK | Director of Perth French Theatre
Stella has been involved in the arts industry for over 25 years. She works through various disciplines such as theatre, film and photography, in France predominantly but also in Brazil, USA, Belgium, Costa Rica and Australia where she lived. Through her different experiences across the world, Stella developed a keen interest in multiculturalism as she sees it as our greatest strength. After being granted a Distinguished Talent VISA to stay in Australia, Stella started to share her expertise and passion with the Australian community through the Perth French Theatre. In 5 years, she produced and directed 8 plays in French with English subtitles and received many awards including the Bryant Stokes Matilda Award for Cultural Excellence in 2017. Like many of us, COVID slowed down her momentum, so she used the opportunity to explore a new medium and started to make clay sculptures in order to express her interest for the human nature and explore the fragile limits between reality and fiction, balance and madness. Stella continues to be inspired by the bearers of stories.
VICTORIA LEVADOUX | Chairperson of WA French Festival Inc.
Originally from Lyon in France, Victoria has lived in France, USA and Germany before settling in Australia in 2009 and becoming an Australian citizen in 2014. Victoria is a polyglot and speaks fluently French, English, German and Spanish. Mother of three children, she will tell you how much her family is important to her. Between her family and the French community commitments, Victoria is always on the hunt for new ideas. She is a true lover of arts, nature and books. She enjoys playing an active role within the French community in Perth and created in 2015 the Bonjour Perth Festival to gather people who share their common interest of the French culture and other francophone countries. The Bonjour Perth Festival has been a tremendous success gathering more than 20,000 visitors every year. Since 2020 the committee decided to run the festival differently with now a series of smaller events that still celebrate the Francophonie.
