At the CCA, our Collection is a source of ongoing conversation—an archive that encourages reflection and new insights. On Friday, 21 February, we invite you to join us for an afternoon with Didier Morelli as he leads a small group through a thoughtfully curated selection of objects from the Collection. Each of these objects tells its own story, offering a unique perspective on architecture and design. Didier’s selections will reveal how, when viewed together, they inspire fresh ideas and deepen our understanding of the field.

This thematic session will focus on the place that performance has within the CCA Collection. Specifically, it employs performance as a methodological framework to ask how architects, urban planners, engineers, and builders have been fascinated by and analyzed body-based actions—both quotidian, cultural, social and artistic—to better understand the users they seek to construct environments for. From early twentieth century colonial research photographs by the Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company at the Zambezi River documenting “masked dancers,” to hand drawn Le Corbusier perspective stage set views for a performance by Josephine Baker during the 1920s Harlem Renaissance, and to Gianni Pettena’s iconic contributions to the Italian radical architecture movement from the 1970s to this day, the lens of performance allows us to approach the field of architecture and its artifacts as a dynamic, interdependent relationship between stage and body, a vessel, volume, or container and a fleshy, volatile, moving entity.

This event will be held in English. It will take place in the Study Room and is free of charge, but space is limited, so RSVP is required. Admission to the museum is included with your registration. We look forward to welcoming you to this thoughtful and enriching experience.

If you have any questions, please contact 514-939-7002 or write to public@cca.qc.ca

Didier Morelli is a curator, performance and art historian, cultural critic and visual artist. His Fonds de recherche du Québec—Société et culture (FRQSC) Postdoctoral Fellowship, which he holds at Concordia University and the CCA examines how second-wave feminist performances subverted urban functionalism by imagining alternate modes of embodiment in Montreal and Toronto during the 1970s. Previously the associate editor at Espace art actuel, his writing has also been published in Art Journal, CTR: Canadian Theatre Review, C Magazine,CBC Arts, Esse Arts + Opinions, RACAR, Spirale, and TDR: The Drama Review. Morelli will be the curator of the 2026 MANIF, the Quebec City Biennial, which is titled “Briser la glace / Splitting Ice.”