25/1/2013
Jorge Lozano
Vtape, Toronto
Splintering Time, Fragmenting Space. With an eye to representing the broad range of Lozano's prolific practice, Root has assembled an impressive cross-section of works that includes his long-form magical narrative The Three Sevens.
Curated by Deborah Root
Vtape is deeply honoured to present the first major survey exhibition of the video
works of Jorge Lozano. A key figure in the independent media arts scene in
Toronto and Canada for several decades, Lozanoʼs narrative and experimental
works have shown in many prestigious festivals including Toronto International
Film Festival and Sundance.
A founder of aluCine: Toronto film + media arts festival, Lozano has mentored
scores of young artists, providing an exhibition platform for their highly
experimental works as well as conducting workshops for marginalized youth in
Canada and Latin America. All the while he continues to develop and expand his
own practice which circles the deeply associative relationships between people of
different cultures and classes as they intersect in the realpolitik of daily life.
With an eye to representing the broad range of Lozanoʼs prolific – often
collaborative - practice, Root has assembled an impressive cross-section of
works that includes his long-form magical narrative The Three Sevens (1993) as
well as the recent impressively philosophical tour de force, Stratigraphies (2012),
shown as a single-channel HD projection.
Additional installations include the
sensuously beautiful 2-channel Kuenta (2012) made in collaboration with
Alexandra Gelis and Situations (2012) a 3-channel reconstitution of decades of
Lozanoʼs footage recorded on the streets during a variety of public actions and
demonstrations. And finally there is Watch My Back (2010) which documents
Lozanoʼs work with youth groups in Toronto and Columbia. All of these are
complemented by a 6-title compilation reel featuring works from 1984 to 2009.
Deborah Root is a well-published writer and critic, author of numerous articles
and reviews as well as a seminal text on colonial power and cultural exchange,
Cannibal Culture: Art, Appropriation and the Commodification of Difference. This
exhibition, JORGE LOZANO: Splintering Time, Fragmenting Space, is her first
foray into curating. Her monograph essay on Lozanoʼs work is available in printed
and on-line form through Vtape and the Vtape website.
Splintering Time, Fragmenting Space is the 10th edition of Vtapeʼs Curatorial
IncubatorTM, an award winning mentorship program providing support to
emerging curators of video art. Applications to this competitive program are
carefully juried – this year by me and Assistant Curator at the Power Plant Julia
Paoli - and the award reflects not only the quality of the proposed project but, in
this case, the crucial nature of the proposal. The jury felt that the time was
absolutely right for a major exhibition of the work of Jorge Lozano.
Opening: Saturday January 26, 2-5pm
Vtape
401 Richmond Street West, Suite, Toronto
Hours: Tuesday-Friday 11am-5pm, Saturday 12-4pm
Free Admission