7a*md8 – ON SCREEN
Thursday August 24, 2017
7 pm
291 Lake Shore Boulevard East (just west of Parliament St.)
Presented in partnership with Art Spin and Waterfront Toronto in conjunction with Desire Lines
Saturday June 10, 2017
7:30 – 9 pm
201 Guildwood Parkway Scarborough
Presented in partnership with (Un)settled
7a*md8 consists of a series of multi-platform performance-for-the-camera screenings and digital residencies distributed across a range of Toronto cultural spaces as well as online platforms. The Toronto Performance Art Collective (TPAC) has a record of supporting a diversity of practices in the field of performance art. Expanding from our established festival format, we would like to create points of access for Toronto artists working at the intersection of performance and new media forms, as well as those who may find it difficult to travel to Toronto due to remoteness, disability, personal obligations, or political circumstance. 7a*md8 explores new ways for TPAC to address these concerns. Harnessing the potential of the proliferation of Internet platforms for disseminating performance videos, 7a*md8 will offer a fresh approach to performance and new media curation, featuring three distinct events that examine contemporary developments in the relationship between body art, lens-based practices and the politics of access.
7a*md8 – On Screen is a collection of performances designed specifically for the camera by local, national and international artists. In the past few years we have seen how the camera has played a major role in bringing attention to narratives, events and bodies marginalized from the general public. Lens-based media and online platforms have created new possibilities for self representation. The artists selected for this series will speak to our relationship to media as a form of accessible communication in the face of unevenly permeable borders.
7a*md8 – On Screen artists include Lisa Birke, Erika DeFreitas, Johanna Householder & b. h. Yael, Merritt Johnson, Cressida Kocienski, Cheryl L’Hirondelle, Manolo Lugo, Julieta María, Zinnia Naqvi, Michèle Pearson Clarke, Lisa Steele, Tadasu Takamine, and Alize Zorlutuna.
(Un)settled is a site-specific exhibition and residency that sets out to investigate and unsettle the history of the Guild Park and Gardens—formerly the Guild of all Arts—in Scarborough, which has grown from a collection of rural communities into a dense and culturally diverse urban sprawl on the eastern flank of Toronto. Curated by Bojana Videkanic.
For more information about (Un)settled visit http://www.unsettledproject.
FREE TRANSPORTATION
A free bus service will be provided from downtown Toronto (Dundas St. W. south side in front of the AGO at the designated Motor Coach Loading Area) to the Guild Park and Gardens on Saturday June 10. To reserve a spot on the bus please e-mail bojana.videkanic@uwaterloo.ca. Please include your name, e-mail address and June 10th in the subject line. The spots on the bus are limited and are on a first-come-first-serve basis.
Desire Lines is a visual art exhibition showcasing notable regional artists presenting artwork from a wide variety of disciplines and curated by Art Spin’s Layne Hinton & Rui Pimenta, organized by Art Spin in partnership with Waterfront Toronto.
This exhibition responds to themes that deal with the highly nuanced dynamic of placemaking and what constitutes the concept of home, as well as exploring our complex and storied relationship to our waterfront. Desire Lines is curated in both a massive 8000 sqft. warehouse and retired condo presentation centre with many works responding to the unique features of the space itself.
Location:
291 Lake Shore Boulevard East (just west of Parliament St.)
Look for a painted white warehouse. The exhibition is fully accessible. The space, which is just south of the Distillery District, can be accessed easily by bicycle from the Waterfront Trail, or by car via Queens Quay, there is a paid parking lot available on site.
Opening Night Reception & Party: Thursday, August 24, 7 pm – 1 am
Exhibition Runs: August 25 – September 3
Exhibition Hours: Wednesday – Saturday 12 pm – 8 pm, Sundays 12 pm – 6 pm
ARTISTS:
Karen Miranda Abel
Jennifer Marman and Daniel Borins
Kaitlyn Bourden
Hannah Busse
Paul Chartrand
Nicole Clouston
Naomi Dodds
Anna Eyler
Chris Foster
Young & Giroux
Sarah Kernohan
Alex McLeod
Daniel Rotsztain
Sheldon Storey
Jessica Thalmann
Tough Guy Mountain
VSVSVS
SPECIAL EVENTS:
Opening Night Party – Thursday August 24, 7 pm – 1 am
Opening night features a unique screening of a film program, 7a*md8 On-Screen, programmed by Golboo Amani and Fransisco-Fernando Granados, along with a musical performances by T.Dot BANGERZ Brass programmed by Art Spin’s partners at CDR and a dance-floor friendly set by DJ General Eclectic.
Curator and Artist Talk – Saturday August 26, 3 pm – 4 pm
Join Art Spin curators Layne Hinton and Rui Pimenta to walk through the exhibition and discuss some of the curatorial themes. Artists joining us to talk about their work – to be announced.
Presenting Partners:
Waterfront Toronto
Myseum of Toronto
Funding Partners:
Toronto Arts Council
Ontario Arts Council
In-Kind Partnerships:
InterAccess
Ed Video Media Arts Centre
CDR
Bike Pirates
Hoop Driver
Trip To The Moon
Everything but the Band
We are sad to report the untimely death in a car accident of Ben Portis, freelance curator and writer, who reviewed several artists in the 2014 edition of 7a*11d for The Dance Current. He is fondly remembered by some of his friends and colleagues in this post from Canadian Art:
http://canadianart.ca/features/ben-portis-1960-2017/ Continue reading
Artist Margaret Dragu returns for a fifth season of Verb Frau; an ongoing experiment in broadcast that consolidates many of Dragu’s personae in Verb Frau TV as feature interviewer, performer, and personality, Verb Frau, investigating contemporary performance art practice through conversations with international artists, from the new and emerging to the senior and famous. Continue reading
DEADLINE: February 15, 2017
Toronto Performance Art Collective, presenter of the biennial 7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art, is currently seeking proposals from Canadian and International artists for a series of events during our “off year” that examine contemporary developments in the relationship between performance art and new media. In 2017, we will present 7a*md8, a 3-part series that considers examines how new media impacts the direction of performance art activity. Our programming will feature performances for the camera, performances for new/social media platforms and a live streamed international performance event that can accommodate artists and audiences with limited mobility (e.g. those who find it difficult to travel because they are living in remote locations, living with disabilities, constrained by domestic obligations, etc.). Continue reading
Check out this recent wide-ranging interview with 7a*11d collective members Johanna Householder and Francisco-Fernando Granados by Fabien Maltais-Bayda in Momus: “Performance Art in a Precarious Time: A Conversation with Johanna Householder and Francisco-Fernando Granados”. Householder and Granados take the opportunity to talk about the current state of performance art, the challenges of creating and curating live work, and the ways performance intersects with various social, political and educational institutions.
I think caring for the field is also what binds us [7a*11d] together as a collective, because we are serious about it. We feel that performance has modalities of expression that are not available in any other art form, and that can address very deeply and sincerely the human condition. That’s what makes us want to keep working. —JH