Rise 2026: This Is The Place Where We Pray

This is the Place Where We Pray is a durational, site-specific exploration of silence and stillness.Inspired by a 2022 visual artwork by Baptiste and Kramer, the project draws from both the original piece and its creation process as a reference point for the performers instinctual engagement with the space. The work expands the sensory and relational dimensions of the artwork through experimental experiences and place-based knowledge, inviting audiences to encounter memory, time, and space in new ways.First presented by The Fonderie Darling during their Place Publique performance series Les caresses qui nous unissent (2024), Kramer performed the work on July 18, 2024, creating a living, immersive environment that activates both the body and the materiality of the site.While the original artwork is not displayed, the performance uncovers new modes of expression and a wide spectrum of stories through Kramers visualization, renewal, and embodiment.As art critic James Oscar notes:In the repetitive wiping of surfaces, a total cleaning before we can even think of heading into places of prayer, the body schema might suggest a dialogue between action and materiality. However, this cleaning is more than a phenomenological act. It is ritualistic, an invocation. To clean the surfaces and be cleaned aligns the performer with something greater than the self, something more-than-human. The dancer participates in a reciprocal act with the land and the forces it holds.This is the Place Where We Pray invites viewers to immerse themselves in the unfolding narrative, exploring relationality, ritual, and the perceptual possibilities of embodied experience.Suitable for all agesAbout the artist
Lara Kramer is a performer, choreographer, and multidisciplinary artist of mixed Oji-cree and settler heritage, raised in London, Ontario. She lives and works in Tiohti:ke/Mooniyang/Montreal.Over the past sixteen years, her choreographic work, research, and fieldwork have focused on intergenerational relations, intergenerational knowledge, and the impacts of the Indian Residential Schools of Canada. Kramer is the first generation in her family not to attend the Residential schools.Her approach to experiential practice and the creative process of performance, sonic development, and visual design is based on embodying experiences like dreams, memories, knowledge, and reclamation. Her dance, performance, and installation creations have been showcased across North America, Europe, Australia/Oceania, and Martinique.She has received multiple awards, acknowledgments, and prizes for her work both as an emerging and established artist. In 2018, Lara received the Jacqueline-Lemieux Prize for recognition of artistic excellence and distinguished career achievement in dance.Two artworks from Kramers In Blankets, Herds and Ghosts were recently acquired by Pointe--Callire, Museum of Archaeology and History (2022-23). Lara Kramer is a Center de Cration O Vertigo CCOV Associate Artist since 2021.
https://larakramer.ca/Credits:
Duration - 2 hr
Conceived, Created, Set, Sound Design and Performed | Lara Kramer
Art Work | Ida Baptiste + Lara Kramer
Technical Director | Jo VignolaPresented in Glasgow in partnership with Tramway