Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival
dal 30/4/2014 al 30/5/2014
Segnalato da
30/4/2014
Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival
Different Venues, Toronto
Identity. Over 1500 Canadian and international artists and photographers at more than 175 venues throughout the Greater Toronto Area. This edition thematic programming highlights the relationship between identity and photography by focusing on images that explore individual and collective attributes. The Festival's Primary Exhibitions and Public Installations include both emerging and established artists that address issues of character, nationality, migration, race, class, gender, and sexuality.
Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival is an annual event in May with well over 1500 Canadian and international artists and photographers exhibiting at more than 175 venues throughout the Greater Toronto Area. Founded as a not-for-profit organization in 1997 and now a charitable organization, the Festival is devoted to celebrating, and fostering the art and profession of photography, through a diverse range of programmes.
As a leading proponent of photography, the Festival increases exposure and recognition for local, Canadian and international artists and is committed to advancing knowledge, creativity and innovation in photography. It stimulates excitement and discussion among a diverse audience that has grown to over 1.8 million. CONTACT is the largest photography event in the world, and a premiere cultural event in Canada.
Inspired by discourse within the community and observations of tendencies throughout the field worldwide, an annual thematic focus provides a framework for the development of our curated programming, including Primary Exhibitions and Public Installations. Exploring subjects relevant to our times, we collaborate with galleries, museums, public and private institutions and agencies to create a vital focus on photography in Toronto throughout the month of May.
Exhibitions
CONTACT's Primary Exhibitions at major venues in Toronto showcase the work of Canadian and international artists, both emerging and established, as well as images from throughout the history of photography.
Our Public Installations of photography are presented in high profile public sites across the city that are accessible to a wide and diverse audience from all walks of life.
Reflecting a wide range of approaches to photography, approximately 30 Featured Exhibitions of works by artists from around the world at established galleries and cultural centres are selected through a call for submissions.
The foundation of CONTACT was based on an open call to participate, enabling emerging artists to show their work concurrent with exhibitions of works by leading professionals. Today the Open Exhibitions continue to encourage community involvement across the city at galleries, community centres, educational and international institutions restaurants, cafes, retail stores, and many alternative locations.
Events & Education
CONTACT organizes and co-presents numerous educational activities and events such as lectures, symposiums, film screenings, portfolio reviews and workshops. Catering to all levels of interest in photography, these initiatives stimulate discourse within the community and encourage participation.
The CONTACT Portfolio Reviews brings internationally renowned curators, art dealers, directors, publishers and photo editors together for two days to review the work of emerging and mid-career artists and photographers. To support and advance the careers of talented emerging photographers, one participant is awarded a solo exhibition in the CONTACT Gallery.
A series of Films on Photography are presented in partnership with Hot Docs, Canadian International Documentary Festival.
Sponsorship Programs and Special Projects
In recent years the Festival has experienced significant growth through the development of long-term relationships and partnerships. We work with our partners to facilitate unique outreach opportunities such as lectures, tours, private receptions, scholarships and awards. Examples include, the BMW Art Auction and the BMW Exhibition Prize, Nikon Lectures and Photo Contest and the Scotiabank Photography Award.
CONTACT 2014
Identity
Photography is a vital means of communicating the distinguishing characteristics of people, and demonstrating both the objective and subjective reality of objects and sites. The construction of identity is deeply connected to the taking and viewing of photographs, now more than ever within our hypermediated culture. Regardless of the processes employed in their production, photographic images convey genuine external traits, conditions of sameness, and situational differences. They influence human behaviour and the ways in which we adapt within and respond to the world around us.
CONTACT’s 2014 thematic programming highlights the relationship between identity and photography by focusing on images that explore individual and collective attributes. The Festival’s Primary Exhibitions and Public Installations include photo-based works by Canadian and international artists, both emerging and established, that address issues of character, nationality, migration, race, class, gender, feminism, masculinity, and sexuality. While some artists create scenes that represent intimate aspects of themselves and their subjects, others take a documentary approach to describe shared concerns and provoke questions. Each of them emphasizes the power of photographs to influence a physical and psychological identification with people, places, and things, while acknowledging the complex and mutable character of their subjects. Through a variety of practices, the artists and their photographs assert their own idiosyncratic identity and elicit an emotional association that is both outwardly influential and internally processed by viewers.
Bonnie Rubenstein
Artistic Director
Image: Meryl McMaster, Wind Play, 2012, courtesy of Katzman Contemporary
Press contact:
NKPR Inc. +1 416-365-3630 info@nkpr.net
Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival
80 Spadina Avenue, Suite 310 - Toronto, Ontario