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In the studio with the little critics

by on March 22, 2013 in Arts, Community connection, General, Thematic Residency, Visual Arts, Walter Phillips Gallery

New Crits on the Block was a school program piloted by the Walter Phillips Gallery this past February 2013 to give young people unique opportunities to engage with visual artists in residence here. Small groups of students from the Banff Elementary School were paired with artists to conduct studio visits, unmediated by any accompanying adults. This youth-led exchange was a unique occasion for participating artists to consider how their work is understood by a younger audience, and about how they communicate about artistic practice. For local students, the program offered a wonderful opportunity to meet face-to-face with a contemporary artist, providing insight into the process of making art.

Grade Four students from Banff Elementary School with artist William Brisco.

Grade Four students from Banff Elementary School with artist William Brisco.

The following text was written by five Grade 4 students from the Banff Elementary School about their studio visit with Vancouver-based artist William Brisco, who was in the Visual Arts residency Our Literal Speed. 

WILLIE BRISCO By Max, Brodie, Logan, Abigail and Megan

On February 6, 2013, the Grade Four students walked to The Banff Centre to meet professional artists and to learn about life as a professional artist. Everybody got split into different groups and each group got assigned to meet a different artist. Max, Brodie, Logan, Abigail and Megan were all assigned to Willie Brisco. All the groups had written down some questions on some paper to ask the artists.

The students asked Willie what his favourite part about art was and he said “Uncertainty”.

When our group got into his studio, he showed us some of the sculpture work he likes to do. On the other hand, the art he also likes to do is photography.

Willie said his favourite piece he has ever done is a photograph of his sister. Then, Willie let us draw so that we could exchange our drawing for his artworks.

There were many pieces of art on his desk and most people had a favourite. He said that how he decides what his art is worth takes a lot of discussion. So, in conclusion, the students’ day with the artist “Rocked!”

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dOCUMENTA (13): A Banff Retreat

by on January 7, 2013 in Arts, Banff, General, Ideas, Indigenous Arts, Thematic Residency, Visual Arts, Walter Phillips Gallery

Still from Brian Jungen and Duane Linklater’s Modest Livelihood (2012), courtesy the artists

Still from Brian Jungen and Duane Linklater’s Modest Livelihood (2012), courtesy the artists

What does it mean to retreat?

The densely valenced theme of “retreat” was explored by the 33 participants and six faculty who as artists, academics, and cultural practitioners gathered at The Banff Centre for the August 2012 Visual Arts residency The Retreat: A Position of dOCUMENTA (13).

The call for participants proposed “To enter or enact a retreat is to draw together, in refuge, seclusion, separation, and sharing – not in order to abandon active life with others, but to consider ourselves, with others.” Through seminars, public talks, ceramics workshops, participant presentations, social gatherings, and hikes, The Retreat offered an interdisciplinary space for critical and creative inquiry and reflection. Organized by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, artistic director of dOCUMENTA (13), Kitty Scott, then director of Visual Arts at The Banff Centre and a core agent for dOCUMENTA (13), and Imre Szeman, a Canada Research Chair in Cultural Studies and professor of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta, it was also the second Banff Research in Culture (BRiC) residency. Continue Reading →

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Treading the edges of humour with Experimental Comedy Training Camp

by on January 4, 2013 in Arts, Banff, General, Podcasts, Thematic Residency, Visual Arts

Photo by Michael Portnoy: Taipei Women’s Experimental Comedy Club, 2010, installation and performance. Installation view, Taipei Biennial, 2010.

The Banff Centre hosted the Experimental Comedy Training Camp, a seven-week residency in the fall for visual artists working at the intersections where art and humour usually fear to tread. The residency was led by Michael Portnoy (Director of Behaviour), and featured guest appearances by, Mai Abu ElDahab, Steven M. Johnson, Ieva Misevičiūtė and Reggie Watts.

In this piece of audio we hear from Reggie Watts and participants Neil LaPierre, and Fake Injury Party (Derrick Guerin, Scott Leeming and Paul Tjepkema) about childhood memories, transformation, and the true meaning of knowing yourself.

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Audio produced by Chris Wood.

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Steven M. Johnson – Patent Depending

by on October 4, 2012 in Arts, Banff, Events, General, Thematic Residency, Visual Arts

Used with permission from author. What the World Needs Now: A resource book for daydreamers, frustrated inventors, cranks, efficiency experts, utopians, gadgeteers, tinkerers, and just about everybody else. 3rd edition, Patent Depending Perss. Torrence, California. 2012.

 

Inspiring creativity:  we’re all familiar with that phrase at The Banff Centre and everyone has a different idea of what exactly is inspiring. Maybe you’re inspired by the scenery, by the wildlife, or by the atmosphere of collaboration. To cartoonist-inventor Steven M. Johnson, the inspiration for his creativity comes from something a bit more unusual: he’s obsessed with designing impractical inventions. As invited guest of The Banff Centre’s Experimental Comedy Training Camp offered through the Visual Arts department, Johnson gave a public talk to share some of his inventions. I was fortunate enough to attend.  Continue Reading →

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Banff Summer Arts Festival Report: Week Five

by on July 28, 2012 in Arts, Banff, Banff Artist in Residence, Banff Summer Arts Festival, Dance, Events, Festivals, General, Literary Arts, Literary Journalism, Theatre, Thematic Residency, Visual Arts

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dOCUMENTA (13) comes to Banff

by on July 25, 2012 in Arts, Banff, Banff Artist in Residence, Banff Summer Arts Festival, Events, Festivals, General, Thematic Residency, Visiting Artists, Visual Arts, Walter Phillips Gallery

Giuseppe Penone: Ideas of Stone, bronze and stone, 2004/2010, photo Roman Mensing, from dOCUMENTA.

Every five years, the contemporary art exhibition dOCUMENTA, located in Kassel, Germany, brings together curators, artists, and art-lovers for a concentrated experience of current thought and creativity in the form of a large exhibition. In 2008, Turin-based writer, art historian, and curator Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev was appointed artistic director of dOCUMENTA (13) (June 9 to September 16, 2012) . Titled The dance was very frenetic, lively, rattling, clanging, rolling, contorted and lasted for a long time, this edition will include over 100 artists from 55 countries who will gather to present artworks as well as other objects and experiments in the fields of art, politics, literature, philosophy, and science.

Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, photo courtesy dOCUMENTA.

In addition to Kassel, Christov-Bakargiev has developed new sites for the 2012 exhibition, including The Banff Centre. She is working with Kitty Scott, the Centre’s director of Visual Arts who is a Core Agent for dOCUMENTA (13), and Imre Szeman, a Canada Research Chair at the University of Alberta to organize a residency on the subject of retreat in Banff in August 2012 as a section of the exhibition.

dOCUMENTA is widely regarded as one of the most important exhibitions of contemporary art in the world. It began in 1955 as an opportunity to refocus the position of culture in postwar Germany, establishing itself in Kassel with an overview of significant European painting from the previous 40 years. It quickly grew into a beacon of current thought in contemporary art, exhibiting minimalist and conceptual work, and eventually representing art from a vast geographic and stylistic range.

Christov-Bakargiev was a guest at a 2011 Visual Arts residency, On the Commons, and she immediately saw the potential for The Banff Centre, with its long history as a setting for creative retreat, to play a significant role in dOCUMENTA. Having begun creating a program for this thirteenth imprint of the exhibition as a gathering of artists working in many disciplines, she saw the Centre as a valuable place that had already established itself in multiple creative disciplines.

Kitty Scott talks about the August residency with excitement that rightly identifies the importance of allying The Banff Centre with this monumental international contemporary art exhibition. “The Banff Centre can be a profound space for the creation of new knowledge, be it in the form of art and/or ideas.” she says. “It will be a place for artists and scholars from all over the world to reflect on what it means to retreat in the current condition.” She continues, “dOCUMENTA questions exhibition-making. It represents a hyper-curiosity about the world, and creates an urge to connect art-making to every other discipline.”

The Retreat residency will bring together 30 participants from multiple disciplines, with faculty including Italian media theorist and activist Franco “Bifo” Berardi, Cornell University-based literature professor and translator Bruno Bosteels, French philosopher Catherine Malabou, French artist Pierre Huyghe, and Hungarian philosopher Gáspár Miklós Tamás. The sessions, which will run during the dOCUMENTA exhibition in early August, will be part of The Banff Centre’s collaboration with the University of Alberta for Banff Research in Culture (BRiC), an annual residency program for scholars in cultural disciplines.

The Retreat promises to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for artists and scholars to participate, in real time, in an exhibition of international significance, with the mandate to truly test the benefits of creative retreat, and allow breakthroughs in artistic, intellectual and personal achievement. 

The Retreat is supported by The Banff Centre, the Canada Council for the Arts, dOCUMENTA (13), The Kahanoff Foundation, and the University of Alberta

 

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