Istvan Kantor
dal 9/2/2005 al 3/4/2005
Segnalato da
9/2/2005
Istvan Kantor
Art Gallery of York University, Toronto
The exhibition concentrates on his recent works overlooked in the media controversy: Kantor's interactive machine and video works. ''His is an aggressive and unapologetic aesthetic of excess. Kantor's interdisciplinary, no-holds-barred, neo-Dada art has earned him a large international following and a unique reputation''
"Istvan Kantor's work in video and performance art is on the cutting and critical edge of contemporary art. His is an aggressive and unapologetic aesthetic of excess. Kantor's interdisciplinary, no-holds-barred, neo-Dada art has earned him a large international following and a unique reputation. He embraces technology in order to confront, and revolt against, the mind-numbing and oppressive nature of technology and the power structures it supports ."
Jury citation, Governor General's Award for Visual and Media Arts, 2004
The AGYU presents the opportunity for the public to examine the work of controversial 2004 Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts winner Istvan Kantor. The exhibition concentrates on his recent works overlooked in the media controversy: Kantor's interactive machine and video works.
A new work, Spielraum/Playroom - Remains of a Revolution , will transform the AGYU into an interactive installation involving live video feeds, projections, and robotics. Also shown will be the feature-length video Lebensraum/Lifespace - Spectacle of Noise (2004), a semi-autobiographical, science-fiction allegory on the battle for living space in and the gentrification of Capital City (Toronto) and the resistance that combats it.
"In the land of accumulation all activity remains activated, causing continuous interventions, overlapping structures, sudden changes, global explosions, turmoil, tumult, turbulence, everything happens at once and simultaneously...It's accumulation that makes the earth shake at six o'clock and demolishes the difference between art and life, labour and leisure". -- Istvan Kantor, 2004.
The AGYU is a university-affiliated public, non-profit, contemporary art gallery supported by York University, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the city of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council.
Public programmes for Istvan Kantor: Machinery Execution include Direct Art, Material Action , a film screening featuring the works of Kurt Kren and Otto Muehl on Wednesday 23 February 2005, 3:30 pm and again on Sunday 27 February 2005, 2 pm . Both screenings will take place in the Nat Taylor Cinema, N102 Ross Building, York University. On Tuesday 8 March 2005, 4:30 pm York University professors: Dr. Steven Bailey (Assistant Professor, Science and Society); Dr. Shannon Bell (Associate Professor, Political Science); and Dr. Jennifer Fisher (Assistant Professor, Canadian Art History/Curatorial Studies) will take part in an interdisciplinary discussion panel on the work of Istvan Kantor. This discussion will consider how Kantor seeks to destabilize the stranglehold and omnipresence of technology and its attendant systems of social control throughout his video, installation, and performance work. On Sunday, 3 April 2005 , the AGYU will team up with the Koffler Gallery and the Doris McCarthy Gallery for a contemporary bus tour of the current exhibitions. The free bus departs from the Ontario College of Art and Design at 1 pm and returns downtown at 4 pm. Please call the AGYU at 416.736.5169 to reserve a seat on the bus.
AGYU @ Mercer Union
The AGYU's experimental music series continues with a performance by Hamilton-based musician Anne Sulikowski and Fonthill-based guitarist Jeff Sinibaldi at Mercer Union: A Centre for Contemporary Art (37 Lisgar Street, Toronto) on 24 February 2005 at 7:30 pm. Using computers and sequencers Sulikowski and Sinibaldi blend and layer drone, ambient fragments, and synth pop into a unique lexicon of digital sound. Anne Sulikowski and Jeff Sinibaldi will perform along side video and light projections by General Chaos Visuals . This programme is made possible through the Canada Council for the Arts' Music in Alternative Spaces grant.
AGYU @ Sweaty Betty's
The AGYU will be celebrating the release of What It Feels Like for a Girl and Sinbad in the Rented World with a catalogue launch and Party! at Sweaty Betty's bar (13 Ossington St., Toronto) on 14 March 2005 at 8 pm . The two-part catalogue, designed by award-winning Lisa Kiss Design, documents the inaugural exhibitions by Director/Curator Philip Monk and features fiction by Sheila Heti and Derek McCormak as well as critical essays on the work in the exhibition by Sally McKay and R.M. Vaughan.
Visit the AGYU website and participate in a virtual dialogue about our exhibitions on our new BLOG. View Quicktime video from our new multi-media archives as well as access installation views, images, and information about past exhibitions, artists, and educational programmes.
For more information on the exhibition, images, or interviews with Istvan Kantor or curator Philip Monk, please contact: Emelie Chhangur Assistant Curator 416.736.5169
Image: Istvan Kantor, Intercourse, 2000. Interactive Machinery. Courtesy of the artist.
The Art Gallery of York University is located at 4700 Keele St. in the North Ross building of York University, Suite 145.
Gallery hours are: Monday to Friday, 10 am - 4 pm; Wednesday, 10 am - 8 pm; Sunday, noon-5; Saturday, closed.
Admission is free.