BARRY DOUPE SCREENING OF PONYTAIL

Ponytail

A Feature by Barry Doupé (in Person)

Saturday, November 29, 8pm

CineCycle,129 Spadina Ave.

1

1222705894

Join us for the Canadian premiere of Ponytail ( 2008, 90 min, computer animation on video). This feature-length video follows several inflicted characters and recounts the ways in which they find resolve. A series of entropic scenarios held together by an attraction to failure and its spectacle describe the characters’ malfunction — their inability to fulfil personal desire. Compelled by the consequences and rewards of their attempts they question their own trajectory. Using elements of melodrama, performative monologue and traditional narrative structure Ponytail presents a unique society of characters that destroy the distinction between memory and invention. (BD)

Ponytail

Ponytail

Ponytail

Ponytail

VTAPE: TALES FROM THE CRYPT

Please join us at Vtape for the first in an occasional screening series entitled TALES FROM THE CRYPT*.

FROM FOUNDATION TO FIXATION:
video art and the face

curated by
KAITLIN TILL-LANDRY

Screening and curator's talk
Friday, November 28, 2008
Screening @ 6 & 7:30pm
Curator's talk @ 7:00pm

This programme will be available on request through
Saturday, December 20, 2008

Self-Portrait (Made-up), Alice Evensen

For over a decade, Vtape has developed an intensive and multi-faceted intern training programme for students and members of the interested public. With this programme - FROM FOUNDATION TO FIXATION: video art and the face - Vtape offers a showcase for the curatorial talents of one of our recent interns.

Some background: In 2006-7, Kaitlin Till-Landry worked as a technical intern at Vtape. During this period of time, she managed the restoration of the early video artwork of Martha Wilson, the founder of Franklin Furnace (New York) and a pioneering feminist artist whose works from her time at NSCAD (Nova Scotia College of Art & Design, Halifax) have become part of the canon of early feminist video art. Kaitlin Till-Landry, still a student herself, worked directly with Martha Wilson to ensure that the restoration conformed to the artist's standards.

This process solidified Till-Landry's interest in the connection that many of her contemporaries have with the idea of "the face" as a site for their explorations of identity and engagement. As a result, she put together this programme that combines the works of artists from the early 1970s with works from the immediate present.

Landry's thoughts on this intriguing programme: "In the 1970s, many artists approached the face as a focal point within the unlimited possibilities of video as a newly accessible medium. Largely, in the 80s and 90s video work stepped back from this tight framing. Over thirty years later, a resurgence in video works that center on the face incorporate advances in post-production and accessibility providing a basis for investigation into the way artists interact with the medium within this intimate framing."

*TALES FROM THE CRYPT is one of Vtape's curatorial mentorship programmes that provide opportunities for emerging curators to work with media artworks in creative and challenging ways. With TALES FROM THE CRYPT, Vtape encourages our interns to develop programmes centred around the works that they (the interns themselves) have restored or researched. Often, their efforts have brought works of historical importance back into circulation, both as artworks and also as documents of historically significant events. TALES FROM THE CRYPT will allow the public to engage with these re-discoveries.

TALES FROM THE CRYPT.
FROM FOUNDATION TO FIXATION:
video art and the face

The Contest, Liz Knox, 2:45min. 2004
Deformation, Martha Wilson, 8:00. 1972
Pryings, Vito Acconci, 6:00. [excerpt from 21:00min.] 1971
Self-Portrait (Made-up), Alice Evensen, (silent) 6:00min. 2005
The Art of Autobiography: Redux I, Dana C. Inkster, 5:00min. 2006
full effect, Jeremy Bailey, 2:00min. 2005
Kiss. Robert Bowers, (silent) 5:30min. 1971
Self Portrait, Nolan Natasha, 1:45. 2003

Vtape
401 Richmond St., #452
Toronto, ON M5V 3A8
416 351-1317

Tuesday-Friday 11am-5pm, Saturday 12-4pm
For more information, contact info@vtape.org

www.vtape.org

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: INTERACCESS CURATORIAL INTERNSHIP

Call for applications: Curatorial Internship at InterAccess, Toronto
Deadline: Friday, January 9, 2009

InterAccess is seeking an organized and motivated student or recent graduate for our annual Curatorial Internship.

InterAccess is dedicated to expanding the cultural space of technology. We fulfill our mandate through our internationally renown exhibition programmes, media production studio and innovative educational activities. A unique centre in the country, InterAccess has been at the forefront of electronic and new media arts in Canada since 1983. For more information about InterAccess visit www.interaccess.org .

Nature and Scope of Position

Reporting to the Director and supervised by the Assistant Curator/Public Programmes Manager, the Curatorial Intern is given the opportunity to learn about all aspects of programming within an artist-run, media arts centre environment. This unpaid internship is ideally 7-14 hours per week from February through April, approximately 7-10 hours per week from May through August, and extended hours during the weeks leading up to the exhibition, and is slated to begin February 2009.

This Curatorial Internship programme began in 2001 and is an ideal placement for an undergraduate student in his or her final year of study. Students may also use this internship for independent study credit. Past Curatorial Interns at InterAccess have gone on to work in such institutions as the Doris McCarthy Gallery at the University of Toronto, Xpace Gallery in Toronto, Space Media Arts in London UK, FACT, Liverpool, Transmediale in Berlin, Germany, and many go on to complete a masters in curatorial studies.

The primary responsibility of the Curatorial Intern is the development of the annual Emerging Artist exhibition. The intern will develop a coherent and relevant theme for the exhibition, select approximately five works from graduating new media students within Southern Ontario and Canada, assist in drafting an exhibition budget, develop promotional strategies, write a curatorial statement and manage the installation of the exhibition in July 2009. The 2006 Emerging Artist Exhibition, Press Play, received a rave review in the Toronto Star, and the 2007 exhibition, 2 Steps Back, received a glowing review in the Globe and Mail. The curator also publishes a 1500 word essay in the InterAccess brochure series. This opportunity provides wide exposure for both the curator and the artists.

The Curatorial Intern also assists with other duties at InterAccess. He or she is an invited participant on the InterAccess Programme Advisory Council (PAC). Additional duties may include organizing submissions for review, assisting with distribution of listings and other communications duties, assisting with installation and event set-up, researching materials for upcoming exhibitions and events, general office assistance and gallery sitting.

Qualifications

• The ideal candidate will be in his or her final year of study in a related programme at a post-secondary institution in the GTA (or within commuting distance). Recent graduates will also be considered.

He or she will possess:

• Strong knowledge of contemporary media and visual art practices, especially within Canada.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Excellent computer skills (Mac environment).
• Superior organizational skills.
• The ability to deal with diverse public audiences; must be friendly and tactful.
• The ability to work in a self-directed manner as well as in a team environment.

This unpaid internship offers a small curatorial honorarium upon successful completion. This internship may be used for course credit, if applicable to the intern's programme of study.

How to apply

Submissions must include:

• Your CV.
• A cover letter (maximum 2 pages) detailing your experiences and interest in media arts.
  
• A short statement of a possible theme to be explored for the Emerging Artist exhibition (250 words).
  
• Names and contact information for two referees, preferably one academic and one professional.

Please send submissions to:
Dana Samuel, Director
InterAccess Electronic Media Arts Centre
9 Ossington Avenue
Toronto, Ontario Canada
M6J 2Y8

InterAccess does not accept email proposals. Please send your application via post. Thanks!

We thank all applicants for their time and interest in InterAccess, however please understand that our application process is highly competitive. Only those selected for an interview will be contacted.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Colin Campbell and Gareth Long @ Oakville Galleries

Please join us for our winter exhibition openings on Friday 5 December from 7:30 to 8:30 pm at Oakville Galleries at Centennial Square. A reception will follow from 8:30 to 10 pm at Oakville Galleries in Gairloch Gardens.

A bus to both receptions will depart from The Gladstone Hotel (1214 Queen Street West, Toronto) at 6:45 pm, returning downtown at 10 pm. $10 per rider.

People Like Us: The Gossip of Colin Campbell
6 December 2008 - 22 February 2009
at Centennial Square

Colin Campbell, The Woman from Malibu, 1976

Pioneering Canadian artist Colin Campbell used video as a flexible and accessible medium for storytelling; his oeuvre is about characters and their words. Campbell's homespun tapes are a perverse collage of tall tales, rumours, conversations and daydreams gleaned from his everyday life. Ever the great collector, Campbell would borrow a bon mot here, a dirty joke there, a dash of tabloid eccentricity and voilà: an unforgettable story, an unforgettable character. Through videotape, he gossiped with and about his real social circle and created a new one, a group of fictional personas who became tangibly real once their tapes were watched, loved (or hated) and talked about.

People Like Us: The Gossip of Colin Campbell surveys the artist's video career from early tapes like True/False (1972) to his final work, Que Sera Sera (2001). It is the first major exhibition of his work since his death in 2001.

Curated by Jon Davies, this exhibition will tour Canada accompanied by a bilingual catalogue.

This project has been made possible in part through a contribution from the Museums Assistance Program, Department of Canadian Heritage.

---------------------------------------------

Gareth Long
Second, Third, Fourth
6 December 2008 - 22 February 2009
in Gairloch Gardens

Gareth Long, Video Solid (detail), 2006

The work of Gareth Long tends toward conceptual gestures that play with formal ideas of translation, narrative and medium-specificity. His projects frequently turn video into material objects in an effort to explore video's value as infinitely reproducible. Such translations result in pieces far-removed from their source, often barely resembling the original in their new, compromised object form. In crafting modes of video that extend outside the limits of single channel screening, he has generated artworks that not only expand the category of video, but also of animation, sculpture, installation and performance.

This exhibition was programmed to coincide with the Colin Campbell retrospective at Centennial Square; as Campbell's former student, Long's clever experimentations with video are a timely testament to Campbell's ongoing influence.

Equipment for this exhibition has been graciously provided by Ambo Technologies.

---------------------------------------------
Oakville Galleries has two locations:

Oakville Galleries at Centennial Square is located at 120 Navy Street in downtown Oakville. Open Tuesday to Thursday: 12 - 9pm; Friday: 12 - 5pm; Saturday: 10 am - 5pm; Sunday: 1 - 5pm.
Oakville Galleries in Gairloch Gardens is located at 1306 Lakeshore Road East, 2 km east of downtown Oakville. Open Tuesday to Sunday: 1 - 5pm.

Media inquiries contact Tracey Shepherd, 905.844.4402 ext. 28 or e-mail communications@oakvillegalleries.com.

For more information about Oakville Galleries, our exhibitions or programmes, please call 905.844.4402 or visit http://www.oakvillegalleries.com

New admission fees: Adults $2; Youth 12-16 (with ID) $1; Members (Friends of Oakville Galleries) and children under 12 are free.

Oakville Galleries acknowledges the ongoing support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the Corporation of the Town of Oakville along with our many individual, corporate and foundation partners.

PRINT MEDIA SALE NOVEMBER 27th

Vanessa O'Rielly Lecture: Thursday November 27 (B124)

JAMES CARL OPENING @ DIAZ: NOVEMBER 22

James Carl
jalousie
22 November 2008 to 17 January 2009
Opening Saturday 22 November from 5 to 8

Diaz Contemporary is pleased to present new work by James Carl, in his first commercial solo exhibition in Canada. Carl is known for his uncommon use of common materials. In this series of works, his exploration of the material world takes on new visual form.

jalousie is the working title for a series of sculptures that Carl began making in 2005 in Paris. The works are constructed from venetian blinds - referred to as "jalousie" in colloquial French and German. As with much of Carl's work, these sculptures explore the possibilities for visual encounter: probing the normal, the moral, and the all-too-common, in a spirit of compliance and conversation.

In conjunction with this exhibition, the first major survey of Carl's work will be exhibited at three galleries. Entitled do you know what, this survey will be shown at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery at the University of Toronto (22 November to 25 January), the Cambridge Galleries Queen's Square (17 January to 1 March) and the MacDonald Stewart Art Centre in Guelph (17 January to 22 March).

Red Bull Projects Opening: Dave Dyment, Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay, Alana Riley, Tony Romano

You Don't Really Care For Music, Do You?

Dave Dyment
Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay
Alana Riley
Tony Romano.
Curated by Catherine Dean

November 20 to December 20, 2008
Opening reception: Thursday, November 20, 6-9pm
Special Performance: Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay sings Jimmy Somerville, 6PM

Gallery walkthrough with curator Catherine Dean and artists Dave Dyment and Tony Romano: Saturday, December 6, 3pm

Red Bull 381 Projects presents a major exhibition of four Canadian artists whose work is ingrained in the cultures, lifestyles, thought processes, and at times bizarre and eccentric outgrowths of music enthusiasm: Dave Dyment, Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay, Alana Riley and Tony Romano.

The exhibition draws its title from Dyment's video Pop Quiz, which features a stream of questions culled from the artist's extensive record collection. Cheeky and provocative, the question might initially come across as a jab at the viewer, but in the context of these four artists' work it reveals layers of meaning that address music's cultural, emotional and transformative qualities. While viewers might feel compelled to defend their investment in music, careful consideration of the show's title begs further questions: What does it mean to "care for" music? Can music care for us? Is it possible to care too much? Combined, these works reveal a web of associations ranging from fandom, cult obsession, nostalgia, existential rumination and the archival impulse.

For more information on the artists and downloadable images of their work, visit www.redbull381projects.com

Red Bull 381 Projects
381 Queen St. W (Queen & Peter) 2nd Floor
Hours of Operation: Wed - Friday 12pm - 5pm, Saturday 12pm - 6pm

upcoming screeing at cinematheque ontario

Toronto Premiere!
New 35mm restored print!

The Exiles
Director: Kent Mackenzie
November 18, 2008, at 7:00pm
November 19, 2008, at 8:45pm

"Enthralling and breathtakingly gorgeous"
-The New Yorker

Hailed as "miraculous" by the New Yorker, The Exiles is a lacerating portrait of the isolation and hardship endured by the Native American community living in the Bunker Hill area of Los Angeles, a once-prominent neighbourhood reduced, by 1960, to decrepitude and poverty. More...

Co-presentation with the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival.

Free Screening!*

Patrick Rumble presents Paolo Gioli
November 19, 2008, at 7:00pm
Paolo Gioli is surely one of the most significant experimental filmmakers Italy has ever produced. All the films in this programme offer meditations on technical innovations of nineteenth- and twentieth-century art, photography and cinema - and on related issues of visual perception. More...

*This free programme is curated and presented in person by Patrick Rumble.

Allan King introduces
A Married Couple
Director: Allan King
November 24, 2008, at 7:00pm

One of Allan King's finest early works and a cornerstone of the cinéma-vérité movement.

Antoinette and Billy Edwards are a middle-class couple whose marriage is experiencing tough times. A Married Couple captures every awkward and unsettling moment as they bicker over money and ultimately power. More...

Don Owen introduces
The Ernie Game
Director: Don Owen
November 30, 2008, at 6:00pm

Best director and best film.
- Genie Awards, October 4, 1968

Ernie Turner attempts to survive in a world where he's perceived as a nuisance by everyone. Newly released from an asylum, Ernie grows increasingly alienated as his fragile mental state declines. More...

For complete schedule, visit cinemathequeontario.ca . Order your tickets online or call 416-968-FILM.
All screenings take place at AGO's Jackman Hall, 317 Dundas Street West, McCaul Street entrance.

Cinematheque Ontario is supported by Bell, RBC, the Ontario Media Development Corporation and the Canada Council for the Arts.

Visa† is the only credit card accepted by Cinematheque Ontario.

Art and Art History Presents Tilo Schulz: November 20

Tilo Schulz Thursday, November 20, 2008
12:30 – 1:30 p.m. Sheridan, Lecture Hall B124 Tilo Schulz will speak on his recent exhibition project I WAS SHOT IN THE BACK currently on view at the Blackwood Gallery, UTM, until January 11, 2009. Schulz’s work intermingles the conventions of art, handicrafts, architecture and design — and queries accepted ideas of high and popular culture. Questions of presentation and representation, of individual perception and the social or political instrumentalization of art are recurrent central issues in his works and exhibitions. The artist, who has also frequently worked as a curator, devotes as much attention to the mise-en-scène of the visitor’s course through the exhibition (of visual axes and spatial sequences), as to the visitors themselves, who are taken into account from the earliest planning stages. Schulz sometimes invites visitors to become agents in his exhibitions, a process the artist calls “activation.” One characteristic feature of Schulz’s oeuvre is his engagement with the formal language of modernism. His interest in the historical debate between the politically instrumentalized art of the former totalitarian systems of the Eastern Bloc and the supposedly free art of the West — a debate his works often critique — is rooted in the artist’s biography; he was born in the former East Germany. Born 1972 in Leipzig, Schulz lives and works in Berlin. Over the past two years, he has shown his artwork at the Secession in Vienna, Magazin4 in Bregenz, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Leipzig. Image: Tilo Schulz, homemade (ideology unit_02) (2006)

RACHEL GOTILEB TALK AT SHERIDAN: TUESDAY NOV. 18

TILO SCHULZ PERFORMANCE SUNDAY NOV. 23

MARC BELL OPENING TONIGHT!

Marc Bell - "Illustrated Cartoon Videos"
Join us for the Grand opening!
Event InfoHost:
Paul Bright Contemporary Art Gallery
Type:
Music/Arts - Exhibit
Network:

Time and PlaceDate:
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Time: 7:00pm - 10:00pm
Location: Paul Bright
Street: 1265 Bloor St. W
City/Town: Toronto, ON

Mike Kelley Screening

Mike Kelley

Day Is Done

Saturday, November 8, 8pm

Latvian House, 491 College St.

1

1222035090

We are very excited to be presenting a rare screening of Los Angeles art star Mike Kelley’s (born 1954) recently re-edited feature Day Is Done (169 min, 2006), an epic investigation of the mythic archetypes and carnivalesque folk culture of America. This self-described musical – with lyrics by Kelley himself! – assembles a loose narrative out of thirty-one performative vignettes which the artist has dubbed “extracurricular activity projective reconstructions.” Each is a live-action recreation of a photograph of an “extracurricular activity” found in a high school yearbook, referencing such homespun spectacles as school plays, talent shows, pageants, theme dress-up days, holiday festivities, religious services and hazing rituals. Through these highly circumscribed institutional displays, we are treated to thugs and mimes, hillbillies and heartthrobs, even a duo of horses who dance in the climactic final procession. A chubby Christian and a svelte Jewess face off at a candle-lighting ceremony, egged on by two rapping neo-Nazis. A singles mixer degenerates into a war between the black kids, the metalheads, the witches and a hick as they fight over the relative merits of R Kelly, Gene Simmons, Brandon Lee and Garth Brooks. An innuendo-spouting barber terrorizes a young blond boy in a grotesque Freudian primal scene. Despite it being filmed in the immediately recognizable environs of a high school, everything in Day Is Done is slightly askew: the acting hammy, the dialogue perverse. Many characters are practitioners of the dark arts, with a wizard and ghoul who wander the woods, and a slew of goths and vampires. A sleazy, foul-mouthed, stand-up comic Satan takes a prominent place as the film develops, as does the Virgin Mary (and her “hag” doppelganger), Joseph, some angels and the players in a Nativity scene. Who will triumph, good or evil? Or maybe the mousy girl in the back row?

Day Is Done

Day Is Done

Day Is Done

SETH IN CONVERSATION WITH CHRIS WARE

CATHERINE SICOT LECTURE

Art and Art History Presents Catherine Sicot
Tuesday, November 11, 2008 12:30 – 1:30 p.m.
Sheridan, Lecture Hall B124

Catherine Sicot is currently Director of Education and Public Programmes at Oakville Galleries. She developed her interest and expertise in engaging audiences with modern and contemporary art practices through working at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la ville de Paris and through teaching in different contexts in Paris and region from 1994 to 1999. Since living in Toronto, she has served on the Boards of 4Unity productions youth media association and Mercer Union. At Mercer Union, she has undertaken international residencies and curatorial projects, exploring community-based and relational practices. Image: Teen project led by Olia Mishchenko at the Oakville Youth Development Centre (2006)

A&AH GRADUATE EXHIBITION MEETING

Art and Art History Graduate Exhibitions Meeting
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
12:30 – 1:30 p.m.
Sheridan, Lecture Hall B124

All graduating students wishing to participate in our two graduate exhibitions at the Blackwood Gallery in March 2009 should attend this meeting.

The exhibitions will take place between March 4 – 29, 2009. Artsweek at U of T will be March 19 – April 3. It might be advantageous to have the second opening on the 19th.

At the meeting we will assign tasks to students to assist with the organization of the shows. Some of the tasks will include the following:

· Signage design and show titles
· Canadian Art ad design and coordination
· Press release writing and distribution
· Artist statement editor
· Reception coordinator
· Installation coordinator for first exhibition, includes creating list of works in the exhibition
· Installation coordinator for second exhibition, includes creating list of works in the exhibition
· Installation strike coordinator for first exhibition
· Installation strike coordinator for second exhibition
· Web communications coordinator, Facebook page

We may consider placing work in outdoor and indoor public spaces throughout the campus. Given that this would take some time to negotiate with the administration, we should think of a deadline well in advance, say six weeks before. That would bring us to mid January.

EXHIBITIONS AT OG2

Coming up at Oakville Galleries

People Like Us: The Gossip of Colin Campbell
6 December 2008 - 22 February 2009
at Centennial Square

Colin Campbell, The Woman from Malibu, 1976

Colin Campbell's videos are as much an oeuvre of words as they are of images. This retrospective exhibition considers the manner in which the artist cultivated a myth around himself and his personae through trafficking in stories, rumours and fables as culled from the goings-on of his everyday life. In blurring truth and lies, real life and artifice, Campbell's video works suggest links between storytelling, self-construction and star power.

This exhibition will travel to Oboro in Montreal and Owens Art Gallery in Sackville, New Brunswick.

Curated by Jon Davies. This project has been made possible in part through a contribution from the Museums Assistance Program, Department of Canadian Heritage.

Gareth Long
Second, Third, Fourth
6 December 2008 - 22 February 2009
in Gairloch Gardens

Gareth Long, Video Solid (detail), 2006

Long's work tends toward conceptual gestures that play with formal ideas of translation, narrative and medium-specificity. His projects frequently turn video into material objects in an effort to explore video's value as infinitely reproducible. Such translations result in pieces far-removed from their source, often barely resembling the original in their new, compromised object form. This exhibition was programmed to coincide with the Colin Campbell exhibition at Centennial Square; as a former student of Campbell's, Long and his work are a testament to Campbell's ongoing influence.

Opening reception for both exhibitions: Friday 5 December from 7:30 to 8:30 pm at Centennial Square. A reception will follow from 8:30 to 10 pm in Gairloch Gardens.

Oakville Galleries has two locations:

Oakville Galleries at Centennial Square is located at 120 Navy Street in downtown Oakville. Open Tuesday to Thursday: 12 - 9pm, Friday: 12 - 5pm, Saturday: 10 am - 5pm, Sunday: 1 - 5pm. Oakville Galleries in Gairloch Gardens is located at 1306 Lakeshore Road East, 2 km east of downtown Oakville. Open Tuesday to Sunday: 1 - 5pm.

Admission is: Adults $2, youth 12-16 (with ID) $1, members (Friends of Oakville Galleries) are free and children under 12 are free.

For further information on Oakville Galleries, our exhibitions or programmes, please call 905.844.4402 or visit http://www.oakvillegalleries.com

Media inquiries contact Tracey Shepherd, 905.844.4402, ext. 28 or e-mail communications@oakvillegalleries.com

Oakville Galleries acknowledges the ongoing support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the Corporation of the Town of Oakville along with our many individual, corporate and foundation partners.

MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY CANADIAN ART Presents DIVINO CORPO Temple of improbable and invisible causes

MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY CANADIAN ART
Presents

DIVINO CORPO
Temple of improbable and invisible causes

Performance artists Guillermo Gómez-Peña,
Violeta Luna and Roberto Sifuentes.
Photographed by Zach Gross, 2007

An interactive performance by La Pocha Nostra
Guillermo Gómez-Peña Violeta Luna Roberto Sifuentes
(U.S.-Mexico)
With Jessica Wyman, Mark Rush, Gale Allen, Ulysses Castellanos and performance students from York University
(Canada)

Friday November 7th, 8 p.m. Duration: 1 hour, 30 minutes.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

ADMISSION: $10.00 AT THE DOOR. NO ADVANCE TICKET SALES. LIMITED CAPACITY.

Since the early 1990s, Mexican performance artist and writer Guillermo Gómez-Peña and his colleagues Violeta Luna and Roberto Sifuentes from the San Francisco-based performance troupe La Pocha Nostra have been exploring the way museums represent cultural Otherness by experimenting with the colonial format of the "living diorama." They have created interactive "living museums" that parody various colonial practices of representation including the ethnographic tableau vivant, the Indian Trading Post, the border curio shop, the porn window display and their contemporary equivalents. These performance/installations function both as a bizarre set design for contemporary enactment of cultural pathologies, and as a ceremonial space for people to reflect upon their attitudes toward other cultures. Recent museum interventions by La Pocha Nostra include the Tate Modern, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, LACMA and the Guggenheim.

As part of their ongoing Mapa/Corpo series, Divino Corpo continues to examine the brown body as a site for radical spirituality, memory, penance, activism, stylized anger and corporeal reinvention. Divino Corpo was premiered at the National Review of Live Arts in Glasgow earlier this year. Posing as living saints and madonnas of unpopular causes (border crossers, disease, the rights of undocumented migrants, sex workers, prisoners, gang bangers, and the displaced invisible Others), the artists create a performative temple where the sacred and the profane intertwine with provocative contemporary issues. They invite audience members to engage in ritualized interactivity and embrace a new form of radical faith - the faith in art as a personal and political transformative force. In the process, the intimate human body becomes the transformative site against a backdrop of global despair and war.

Gómez-Peña, Luna and Sifuentes will be in residency in Toronto from November 2nd to November 8th. This latest presentation of Divino Corpo will take place at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art on Friday November 7th and will feature several Toronto-based performance artists working together with La Pocha Nostra.

All MOCCA programs and activities are supported by Toronto Culture, the Ontario Arts Council, BMO Financial Group, individual memberships and private donations.

Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art 952 Queen Street West, Toronto, ON M6J1G8
Public Information: (416) 395-0067. For media information contact Camilla Singh: (416) 395-7430 or csingh@toronto.ca