FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival launches at MOCCA!
Canadian Premiere of the Archive of Modern Conflict! Recent Work by Michael Snow!
TORONTO, Ontario, May 1, 2013 – The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA) is pleased to launch the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival 2013 with two of the festival’s ten primary exhibitions: Archive of Modern Conflict: Collected Shadows and Michael Snow: The Viewing of Six New Works in our galleries from May 2 – June 2, 2013. The festival launch and the public opening reception will take place on Wednesday May 1, from 7 – 10pm.
Collected Shadows provides a rare glimpse into the Archive of Modern Conflict (AMC), challenging us to reassess the very foundations of how we visualize the past and present. Through unexpected juxtapositions and associations across time periods, geographies, techniques, and subject matter, the exhibition presents wonderfully eccentric salon-style arrangements that cohere into rich stories when they come together on the gallery walls. Collected Shadows is curated by Timothy Prus, organized by the AMC, London, and co-presented by MOCCA and the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival.
MOCCA also presents Michael Snow: The Viewing of Six New Works, for our widely acclaimed National Gallery of Canada at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art program. With The Viewing of Six New Works, Snow presents a series of high-definition videos created with touchscreen-capture software that recorded his gestures. The six-channel installation traces the movements a viewer’s eyes might make as they gaze upon images on the wall. Michael Snow: The Viewing of Six New Works is organized by MOCCA and National Gallery of Canada, and presented in conjunction with the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival.
The CONTACT public installation in MOCCA’s courtyard this year is a large-scale mural by Tel Aviv- based artist IIit Azoulay. In Tree, For, Too, One (special edition), what appears to be a logical grouping of real items displayed on a wall soon reveals itself as a complex, photographic image depicting seemingly unrelated objects. Gathered from her excavation of a demolished building in Israel, Azoulay’s photomontage presents an image born from destruction within a site that is ultimately destined for redevelopment. Presented in partnership with the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival with support from Gluskin Sheff + Associates Inc.
Quotes:
- Bonnie Rubenstein, Artistic Director, Scotiabank CONTACT Festival
“There is a provocative relationship between the three CONTACT presentations at MOCCA, which highlight the act of looking at images and their relationship to the viewer. Contrasting elements of history and technology, darkness and light, density and subtlety, each of them challenges us to consider how we interpret images, as their meaning shifts with time, place, and circumstance.”
- David Liss, Artistic Director and Curator, MOCCA
“We’re very pleased and excited to be collaborating with two of our regular program partners, the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival and the National Gallery of Canada to be bringing this recent work by Michael Snow, one of Canada’s most internationally-renowned artists, to audiences in Toronto.
Links / URLs
- Learn more about Collected Shadows
- Learn more about The Viewing of Six New Works
- Learn more about the NGC@MOCCA program
- Learn more about Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival
Tags / Keywords
Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, MOCCA, National Gallery of Canada, NGC, NGC@MOCCA, Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, Archive of Modern Conflict, AMC, Collected Shawdows, Michael Snow, The Viewing of Six New works, llit Azoulay, Tree, For, Too, One.
About the National Gallery of Canada at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art
The National Gallery of Canada at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art is a three-year program that sees the two institutions co-organize and co-present a series of exclusive exhibitions in MOCCA’s newly-renovated project space, drawn from the NGC’s exceptional contemporary art collection. These include the presentation of single works, new acquisitions or full-scale exhibitions designed to complement MOCCA’s existing programming. Learn more about theNGC@MOCCA program.
About the NGC http://www.gallery.ca/
The National Gallery of Canada at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art is generously supported by AXA Art Canada, Cineplex Media, World MasterCard® and The Ouellette Family Foundation. The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art is grateful for the patronage of THE ART DEPT., a leadership circle of MOCCA patrons.
About MOCCA
The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art was founded from the former Art Gallery of North York in 1999, with the mandate to exhibit, research, collect, and promote innovative art by Canadian and non-Canadian artists whose works engage and reflect the relevant stories of our times. In 2005, MOCCA relocated to the West Queen West Art + Design District in downtown Toronto, in the heart of one of North America’s most dynamic arts communities and functions effectively as a nucleus of energies for cultural production and exchange. Since 2006, MOCCA draws 40,000 visitors annually.
All programs and activities of the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art are supported by Toronto Culture, the Ontario Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, BMO Financial Group, Cisco Canada, The Hal Jackman Foundation, individual memberships and private donations.
For ongoing news, please go to http://mocalegacy.webpreview.site/media-centre
About Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival
CONTACT, a not-for-profit organization founded in 1997 and granted charitable status in 2011, is generously supported by Scotiabank, BMW Group Canada, Nikon Canada, Torys LLP, Ernst & Young LLP, Gluskin Sheff & Associates Inc., Pattison Outdoor Advertising, Vistek, Hewlett-Packard Canada, Kronenbourg, Cutty Sark, Transcontinental PLM, 3M Canada, Four By Eight Signs, Beyond Digital Imaging, Toronto Image Works, Superframe, The Drake Hotel, The Gladstone Hotel, Santa Carolina, The Globe and Mail, Maclean’s Magazine, Toronto Life, The Grid, and BlogTO.
CONTACT gratefully acknowledges the support of Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund, Celebrate Ontario, Ontario Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council, the Mondriaan Fund, and the Hal Jackman Foundation.
CONTACT fosters and celebrates the art and profession of photography with an annual festival in May and year-round programming in the CONTACT Gallery.
Media Contacts
For more information on MOCCA or to interview a MOCCA spokesperson or artist, please contact:
Fayiaz Chunara Head, Communications and Marketing | 416.395.7490 | fchunara@mocca.ca
For more information on CONTACT or to interview a CONTACT spokesperson or artist, please contact NKPR:
Lisa Kwong | 416.365.3630 x242 | lisa@nkpr.net