WHAT WE DO
Climate
Public
Art
TRAction is a dynamic collective of interdisciplinary artists who actively and publicly address issues of climate justice.
Although the projects are primarily facilitated and organized by Melanie Kloetzel and Kevin Jesuino, TRAction expands and contracts to include other interested allies, professionals, scientists, volunteers and artists who work at the intersection of art-making and climate change. Using diverse methods of artistic creation, TRAction addresses complex environmental issues and advocates for climate justice for all humans and species.
TRAction aims to generate, respond to and incite active and open dialogue with the public through a myriad of artistic mediums, including contemporary performance, street theatre, posters, site dance, installation, publications, parades, blogs, graffiti, ritual, festivals, and more.
TRAction envisions a future where all species have the right to a safe and healthy environment, a future where society values the role that art has in creating lasting and meaningful change.
TRAction aims to honour and learn from Indigenous ways of knowing. As such, TRAction has worked in close relationship with a group of Indigenous artists and knowledge keepers from across northern Turtle Island. This group - which has included Chantal Stormsong Chagnon, Sandra Lamouche, Cole Alvis, Starr Muranko and Jacob Crane – are artists, educators and/or knowledge keepers within their various communities. As a collective whose ethics are based on developing relationality as well as being held accountable to the Indigenous communities of the lands we are on, TRAction is grateful beyond words for what these individuals offer in terms of time, knowledge and experience.
Indigenous
Advisors
TRAction
Pillars
TRAction works from five core pillars: Self-Reflexivity, Care, Action-Based Work, Relationship Building, Centering Indigenous Voices.
These pillars derive from and/or strive for decolonization in all areas -- whether in visioning, decision-making, curation, creation, communication, or community engagement. These pillars have emerged from direct engagement with an Indigenous advisory council that advises TRAction and they correlate with the Decolonial Toolkit for Climate Artists, in which key terms are defined and applied.
To view, in detail, TRAction's Pillars, please download the entire document here.
WHO WE ARE
Melanie Kloetzel (MFA, PhD) is a settler performance maker, scholar and educator based in Treaty 7 territory (Moh’kinsstis/Calgary). Co-artistic director of TRAction and artistic director for kloetzel&co., she is committed to research that spans stage, site, and screen. Employing practice-as-research methodologies, Kloetzel develops events, workshops and encounters in theatre spaces, alternative venues, spaces of public assembly, and online environments. Her three books - the co-edited anthology Site Dance: Choreographers and the Lure of Alternative Spaces (2009), the co-authored (Re)Positioning Site Dance: Local Acts, Global Perspectives (2019), and the co-authored Covert -A Handbook: 30 Movement Meditations for Resisting Invasion (2021) - are currently available from University Press of Florida, Intellect, and Triarchy, respectively. Kloetzel is a professor of dance at the University of Calgary. www.kloetzelandco.com
Kevin Jesuino is a first-generation settler multi-disciplinary performer, performing arts educator, movement coach, arts facilitator, LGBTQ+ activist, and community organizer of Portuguese heritage. His work is oftentimes collaborative, site-specific, participatory, and process-oriented. His practice explores relationality, the stories within our bodies, and the queer joy of uncertainty. He draws from research in queer performance, queer ecology, body memory, improvisation, community & participatory art practices, placemaking, and site adaptive/responsive performance. His community-embedded projects engage participants in performative actions, discussions, creative interventions, activations, and other forms of organizing. He is the Co-Artistic Director of TRAction. Kevin is currently completing his MFA in Contemporary Art at Simon Fraser University. www.kevinjesuino.com