Montreal has plenty of wonderful music venues, but none quite as unique as this — performance artist Dayna McLeod is launching a concert hall in her own uterus.
The venue has naturally been dubbed the Uterine Concert Hall, and its grand opening takes place tonight (July 28). At the Darling Foundry, Nikki Forrest and Jackie Gallant will DJ sets in the Uterine Concert Hall.
The venue already has an elaborate website, including some rather humourous technical specs for the venue. "The stage is flexible and expandable," we're told, though there are "no fire exits" and "There is no piano in the venue." Further, we're warned that "the venue is closed for renovations approximately once a month for 4-6 days."
McLeod opened up about the concert venue in an interview with Canadian Art. She explained that the piece was inspired by reading about speakers that can be inserted into the uterus in order to play music for an unborn child:
So I have been thinking about how incredibly invasive these technologies are. And while I have never been pregnant, and I am not a mother, I have been seeing all this stress put on women with questions like, "Should a mother have a job? Is she good enough? Is she ever going to be the best that she can be?" I'm also a woman who doesn't want children, who never wanted children, and to be constantly defined by maternality anyway is definitely problematic. So I was out with some friends, and we were talking about all this, and I offhandedly said, "What about my uterus? Doesn't my uterus deserve some music? If you were to talk to my uterus, what would you say?"
Further, she explained the technical details of how tonight's DJ sets will unfold. "They will be set up at a DJ table at Darling Foundry, and there will be another table there where I will be basically splayed out, with a cable that will go from the DJ booth, quite literally, into me," she explained. "External viewers are invited to eavesdrop. I will also have some stethoscopes so you will be able to listen through my body that way, too."
To stay updated on the Uterine Concert Hall's future concerts, you can follow the venue on Twitter here.
UPDATE (07/29, 2:25 p.m.): Dayna McLeod has contacted Exclaim! with some corrections regarding how the Uterine Concert Hall is set up. She shared the following statement:
There is a significant error in the piece however, that came to my attention from readers of this article who were concerned for the Hall (my uterus) and its structure (my body): the speaker DOES NOT go into my uterus, DOES NOT pass through my cervix, but stays in my vaginal canal as stage FOR the uterus as hall. To be honest, I can't imagine navigating to the uterus through the cervix without the assistance of at least a mirror if not a healthcare professional.
The venue has naturally been dubbed the Uterine Concert Hall, and its grand opening takes place tonight (July 28). At the Darling Foundry, Nikki Forrest and Jackie Gallant will DJ sets in the Uterine Concert Hall.
The venue already has an elaborate website, including some rather humourous technical specs for the venue. "The stage is flexible and expandable," we're told, though there are "no fire exits" and "There is no piano in the venue." Further, we're warned that "the venue is closed for renovations approximately once a month for 4-6 days."
McLeod opened up about the concert venue in an interview with Canadian Art. She explained that the piece was inspired by reading about speakers that can be inserted into the uterus in order to play music for an unborn child:
So I have been thinking about how incredibly invasive these technologies are. And while I have never been pregnant, and I am not a mother, I have been seeing all this stress put on women with questions like, "Should a mother have a job? Is she good enough? Is she ever going to be the best that she can be?" I'm also a woman who doesn't want children, who never wanted children, and to be constantly defined by maternality anyway is definitely problematic. So I was out with some friends, and we were talking about all this, and I offhandedly said, "What about my uterus? Doesn't my uterus deserve some music? If you were to talk to my uterus, what would you say?"
Further, she explained the technical details of how tonight's DJ sets will unfold. "They will be set up at a DJ table at Darling Foundry, and there will be another table there where I will be basically splayed out, with a cable that will go from the DJ booth, quite literally, into me," she explained. "External viewers are invited to eavesdrop. I will also have some stethoscopes so you will be able to listen through my body that way, too."
To stay updated on the Uterine Concert Hall's future concerts, you can follow the venue on Twitter here.
UPDATE (07/29, 2:25 p.m.): Dayna McLeod has contacted Exclaim! with some corrections regarding how the Uterine Concert Hall is set up. She shared the following statement:
There is a significant error in the piece however, that came to my attention from readers of this article who were concerned for the Hall (my uterus) and its structure (my body): the speaker DOES NOT go into my uterus, DOES NOT pass through my cervix, but stays in my vaginal canal as stage FOR the uterus as hall. To be honest, I can't imagine navigating to the uterus through the cervix without the assistance of at least a mirror if not a healthcare professional.