Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller
dal 20/6/2014 al 20/9/2014
Segnalato da
20/6/2014
Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller
Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver
Lost in the Memory Palace. Showcasing 7 significant artworks produced by this collaborative duo since the mid-1990s and consisting of a series of immersive environments, the exhibition creates a labyrinthine space where memory is both lost and retrieved. Audiences are invited to wander from room to room.
curated by Bruce Grenville and Kitty Scott
June 12, 2014, Vancouver, BC – Lost in the Memory Palace, a highly anticipated travelling exhibition by
internationally celebrated British Columbia-based artists Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, opens
at the Vancouver Art Gallery on June 21, 2014. Showcasing seven significant artworks produced by this
collaborative duo since the mid-1990s, this exhibition offers a rare and notable overview of the artists’
work of the past 20 years.
Organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery in collaboration with the Art Gallery of Ontario, Lost in the
Memory Palace is co-curated by Bruce Grenville, Senior Curator at the Vancouver Art Gallery and Kitty
Scott, AGO Curator, Modern and Contemporary Art. The exhibition opened at the Art Gallery of Ontario,
Toronto, Canada in April 2013, followed by a presentation at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San
Diego, USA. The Vancouver Art Gallery is the final stop for this exhibition, which is on view from June 21
to September 21, 2014.
“Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller are among the most respected artists in the world today for their
innovative new media work,” said Kathleen S. Bartels, Director of the Vancouver Art Gallery. “We are
proud to be presenting their captivating and profound works that delight the imagination in so many
extraordinary ways.”The exhibition’s title, Lost in the Memory Palace, refers to the theme of “room”, which is a persistent
figurative device in Cardiff and Miller’s artwork. The room as a site of narrative production has a long
and diverse history in art, but few artists have approached it with the imaginative focus, intensity, and
repetitive use of Cardiff and Miller. Consisting of a series of immersive environments, the exhibition
creates a labyrinthine space where memory is both lost and retrieved. Audiences are invited to wander
from room to room, sifting through fragments of memory as if trying to reassemble a lost train of
thought. In addition to key early works such as Dark Pool (1995) and The Muriel Lake Incident (1999),
and recent works such as Killing Machine (2007) and Storm Room (2009), a new installation,
Experiment in F# Minor (2013), was created specifically for the exhibition. In this work, light-sensors are
activated by the viewer’s movement, triggering a cacophony of sounds.
An interactive exhibition publication, featuring an image-based interface and a hand-made aesthetic will
be available for IOS and Android tablet devices and computer-based browsers when the exhibition
opens. This app brings together the fundamental elements of the artists’ work such as sound, video,
still images, text and touch, providing a unique insight into their art. “Cardiff and Miller’s creativity
seems unbounded, so it's fitting that this experimental app has been conceived and developed for this
exhibition.” said Bruce Grenville, Senior Curator at the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Janet Cardiff (b.1957) and George Bures Miller (b.1960) live and work in Grindrod, British Columbia and
Berlin, Germany. They have been collaborating since 1995 and also produce solo works. Cardiff and
Miller’s accomplishments on the international stage have been numerous. They represented Canada at
the Venice Biennale in 2001 and won La Biennale di Venezia Special Award and the Benesse Prize,
which recognize artists who break new artistic ground with an experimental and pioneering spirit. In
2011, the artists were awarded the Käthe Kollwitz Prize. They were part of the prestigious Documenta
13 (2012) in Kassel, Germany, and most recently, they have participated in the 2014 Biennale of
Sydney. Their list of significant exhibitions is lengthy, including those at MOMA PS1, NY; Musée d'Art
Contemporain de Montreal, Montreal; Whitechapel Art Gallery, London; Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria;
Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin; Hamburger Bahnhoff, Berlin; The Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona,
Barcelona; Miami Art Museum, Miami; and the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Visionary Partner:
David Aisenstat
Generously Supported by:
Rick Erickson and Donna Partridge, Joan Anderson, and Sherry Killam
Digital publication supported by the Government of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council
About the Vancouver Art Gallery
The Vancouver Art Gallery is a not-for-profit organization supported by its members, individual donors,
corporate funders, foundations, the City of Vancouver, the Province of British Columbia through the BC
Arts Council, and the Canada Council for the Arts. We thank everyone for their continuing generosity.
MEDIA INFORMATION:
Debra Zhou, Communications Specialist
Direct: 604-662-4722 Mobile: 604-671-2358
dzhou@vanartgallery.bc.ca
Programming Highlight:
Artists’ talk: Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller
Saturday, June 21, 2pm
ECUAD, 1399 Johnston Street
Emily Carr Lecture Theatre, Room 301, South Building
Pioneers of experimental media-based works, Canadian artists Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller
speak about their multifaceted collaborative artistic practice. Free for the public.
Vancouver Art Gallery
750 Hornby Street, Vancouver
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