{"id":23615,"date":"2014-05-06T19:30:26","date_gmt":"2014-05-06T23:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artoronto.ca\/?p=23615"},"modified":"2014-05-20T20:41:26","modified_gmt":"2014-05-21T00:41:26","slug":"contact-2014-festival-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/?p=23615","title":{"rendered":"Contact 2014 \/ Festival Launch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival 2014 \/ Festival Launch<\/strong>
\nMay 2, 2014, 7 \u2013 10 p.m.
\nMuseum of Contemporary Canadian Art<\/strong><\/p>\n

Photographic works will be on display at 175 venues\u00a0all around the city of Toronto throughout the month of May. Within Contact\u2019s eighteen-year history, the festival has grown to become the largest photographic festival in the world. Contact brings together both international and Toronto based photographers with the community in both public exhibitions and installations.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

David Liss, Artistic Director & Curator of Mocca\u00a0in his opening remarks said that the main exhibition in Mocca, titled,\u00a0Material Self: Performing the Other Within<\/em> is reflecting Mocca’s mission statement:\u00a0\u00a0” … to exhibit, research, collect, and promote innovative art by Canadian and international artists whose works engage and address challenging issues and themes relevant to our times”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Tomoko Sawada’s vitrin\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Works by Namsa Leuba<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Artist David Favrod\u00a0in front of\u00a0\u00a0Vent divin<\/em>, 2013. Favrod came here from Spain to promote his photographic installation, Gaijin<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Works by Mary Sibande<\/p>\n

Bonnie Rubenstein, Artistic Director of Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival <\/strong>and\u00a0curator of\u00a0 the exhibition, discussed the thematic program of “identity” and how the exhibition itself explores the idea of shifting identities, performative gestures, and the\u00a0 uses of clothing and “costume” in creating these identities\/roles.\u00a0\u00a0The exhibition collapses cultural boundaries, exploring role playing,\u00a0 as well as social, cultural, historical, sexual and political issues (intersectionality of gender, race and sexuality). In overall, the\u00a0exhibitions demonstrates\u00a0 photography’s ability or “power” to engage and enrich our own sense of self.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Bonnie Rubenstein, Artistic Director of Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Character: Self-Portrait of the Artist as Another<\/em> co-curator Jonathan Shaughnessy pinpointed\u00a0how\u00a0\u00a0Material Self <\/em>revolves around the work of Rodney Graham who is renowned for his exploration of\u00a0 roles, character, and constructed (enacted)\u00a0 identity in his self portraits.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Artist Meryl McMaster<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Works by Charles Fr\u00e9ger<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Artist Dominique Rey<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Rodney Graham , The Gifted Amateur, Nov. 10th, 1962<\/em>, 2007, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Courtesy of the artist and Lisson Gallery.<\/p>\n

The role of the community, both as participants and viewers in Contact, has been integral to the success of the festival. Darcy Killeen<\/em>, the festivals executive director believes that the \u201cfunction of art is to inspire the community.\u201d Contact has enabled a closer relationship between photographers and the community, bringing to light ideas about the world and the city in which we inhabit. He also expressed his hope\u00a0that the festival can become an international tourist attraction.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Darcy Killeen, Executive Director of Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival <\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>\"\"<\/a>\u00a0
\nThe launch drew a mass of visitors to the MOCCA of both photographers and admirers of photography. The large gallery spaces as well as the courtyard were filled with guest discussing the\u00a0works on display and\u00a0enjoying a drink into the night.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Visitors with Hendrik Kernstens’ work<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Visitors with Meryl McMaster’s works<\/p>\n

Text: Melina Rymberg
\nPhoto: Elena Iourtaeva<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May 2, 2014, 7 \u2013 10 p.m.<\/p>\n

Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art<\/strong><\/p>\n

The large gallery spaces as well as the courtyard were filled with guest discussing the works on display and enjoying a drink into the night. <\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[144,41,145,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-elena-iourtaeva","category-events","category-melina-rymberg","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23615"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23921,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23615\/revisions\/23921"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}