Artists

Donald McRonald Accion 2003 Paris, France image courtesty of the artist

Minerva Cuevas Title: Untitled Artist: Minerva Cuevas (Mexico City, MX) Dates: 8 pm October 29 (Walter Phillips Gallery). Presented by: Walter Phillips Gallery, The Banff Centre Nature of Event: performance Artist's site - http://www.irational.org/mvc Minerva Cuevas’s performance for the Walter Phillips Gallery will highlight and interrogate the relationships between Banff, The Banff Centre, and its surroundings. Through research on the history of the national park and the town of Banff, Cuevas’s performance will call attention to the Park’s sometimes tenuous relationship to its surroundings. Cuevas’s performance, which will be durational, will be created over a two-week residency in Banff and will be on display during this time and through to the closing of the MS:T festival on October 29 in the Walter Phillips Gallery. Characterized by public interventions, the use of media articulating campaigns that address economic and social processes, communications and biotechnology, Cuevas’s work consists of installation, video, photography and advertising resources. “I don't think there is such a thing as ‘political art’. I think about the MVC [Mejor Vida Corp] project in terms of social activism, but I am using mediums and institutions from the art context. One thing is use elements from a specific social context to produce an art piece and another one to make a project useful in social terms.” Minvera Cuevas is a social activist from Mexico City whose work combines artistic practice with creative politics. Cuevas gained international acclaim for creating Mejor Vida Corp. (Better Life Corporation) in 1998. As the sole representative for this corporation, Cuevas provides services that often disrupt the flow of capitalism. Although all of MVC’s products are free and available at http://www.irational.org/mvc, it is not philanthropic; rather the goal of this and other projects by Cuevas is to create a human interface through social exchange. Cuevas has exhibited at a number of international venues including Lisson Gallery, The Biennale of Sydney, Palais de Tokyo, Grizedale, DAAD Gallery, and Musee d’Art Monderne de la Villa de Paris. top

Kirsten Forkert Title: PUBLIC SPHERE AS PROJECT Artist: Kirsten Fokert (Vancouver, BC) Dates: October 8 to 15th, The New Gallery. Offsite performances: October 16th. Contact the artist through The New Gallery or online at: publicsphereproject@yahoo.com. Presented by: The New Gallery Nature of Event: performance Artist's site

Public sphere as project poses the question, “how can art play a role in expanding the public sphere?” This project is a response to the sense that in the present political climate, the public sphere is diminishing, so that we increasingly think in terms of individualism (such as niche markets), or monolithic ideas of collectivity (such as nationalism). In this context, how do we conceive of ‘the public’, other than through mass marketing terms or ‘bums in seats’? Related to this, the project will engage with questions around the function of culture and the role of the artist or audience, in relation to ideas of individual and collective responsibility. Public sphere as project will take the form of an open, participatory process of planning a public event, in response to these issues. Prior to the festival, the project will begin with email correspondence with interested individuals and organizations in Calgary, to discuss these issues. The artist will be available to meet with people for ‘public conversations’ in various sites around Calgary, and through email in the months leading up to the festival. The process will culminate in a public event, which will be an attempt to enact/embody one possible way that art can play a role in expanding the public sphere. The nature and location of the event, as well as the types of activities involved, will be developed directly in response to the issues and ideas raised in the conversations and email correspondence. Kirsten Forkert is an artist, writer, and teacher based in Vancouver. Her work has explored the problematics of conceiving of collective experience and the public sphere in a neoliberal climate, where both identity and community are defined primarily through consumer choice. She has worked individually, collaboratively with John Dummett and as a member of the Counterpublics collective. top

Maria Hupfield Title: MY GRANDMOTHER’S HOME Artist: Maria Hupfield (Toronto, ON) Dates: Performance: Fort Calgary, dawn till dusk, October 16. Opening reception: 8:00 pm, October 8. Exhibition: October 8 through to 31, Truck Gallery Presented by: TRUCK Gallery Nature of Event: performance/installation, exhibition Maria Hupfield My Grandma's Tiipi Tecumseh Festival, Fort York, Ontario images courtesty of the artist “Sunrise. A woman lays a circle of rocks with a marked entrance to the east. Handfuls of earth are carried into the centre of the circle and are formed by hand into a floral pattern radiating from the centre outwards. She enters and leaves the circle from the eastern doorway until the design is complete or the sun sets.”

My Grandmother’s Home is a site-specific installation in Nose Hill Park. Maria Hupfield engages with her heritage as an “Anishnaabekwe (Ojibway woman)” artist to create contemporary works that “unify the traditional craft, ceremony, and performance elements of First Nations Art History with contemporary art practices.” Floral motifs that reference the bead and quill work of First Nations and direct associations between ancestry and the land are all elements of Hupfield’s work that engage with relevant contemporary issues for First Nations Peoples. Working from dawn until dusk, Hupfield’s performance will involve the installation of a circular earthwork consisting of a ring of rocks and floral earthen design within close proximity to Fort Calgary. The daylong performance will be documented and presented within the gallery space for the duration of the exhibition as part of the M:ST 3 Witnessing Series. image courtesty of the artist Maria Hupfield is a Toronto based artist who has been exhibiting work extensively since 1998. Hupfield is currently the coordinator for 7th Generation image Makers, Native Child and Family Services of Toronto, and has sat as a Board Member of the Association for Native Development in the Performing and Visual Arts. top

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M:ST Collaborators:
ACAD | CSIF | EMMEDIA | The Nickle Arts Museum | Stride Gallery | The New Gallery | Truck Gallery | Southern Alberta Art Gallery | The Walter Phillips Gallery |

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