The MacKenzie and New Dance Horizons present "Re: Celebrating the Body"

Expand

N.E. Thing Co. Ltd. Information Sheet for "Celebration of the Body," 1976, photographs mounted on paper, 111.8 x 111.8 cm. Photo courtesy Iain Baxter&.

Winter is warming up at the MacKenzie Art Gallery with a season of programming that bridges visual art with a variety of body-based practices, including athletics, dance, and performance. Presented from January 27 through May 6 in partnership with Regina’s New Dance Horizons, Re: Celebrating the Body is an exciting multidisciplinary project that looks at cultural stereotypes of the body, while focusing on different ideas around ability.

Re: Celebrating the Body revisits the ground-breaking N.E. Thing Co. Ltd. exhibition Celebration of the Body (1976), featuring contributions by NETCO co-presidents Iain Baxter& and Ingrid Baxter, as well as an international contingent of invited artists including Kader Attia, Hannah Dubois, KVM—Ju Hyun Lee & Ludovic Burel, Camille Llobet, Machine à performer, Jeannie Mah, Émilie Parendeau, jes sachse, Erwin Wurm, and others.

Expand

Still from Camille Llobet, "To See What is Being Said," Silent Colour Film, 2016. Photo: courtesy of the artist.

“The entire range of activities that are undertaken by the MacKenzie and New Dance Horizons as part of Re: Celebrating the Body allow the Gallery to showcase a number of established priorities,” says Anthony Kiendl, the MacKenzie Art Gallery’s Executive Director and CEO. “It is curatorially innovative as an exhibition practice, it is inter-disciplinary, it offers an immersive and interactive experience for the visitor, and it introduces a number of new community partnerships. We are also taking this opportunity to explore the Gallery from various perspectives, including those experiences of visitors who are differently-abled. We are actively questioning our assumptions about the visitor’s experience of art and the Gallery. We are thrilled to be working again with New Dance Horizons, and we look forward to welcoming the Regina Symphony Orchestra to the MacKenzie through the Forward Currents Festival that coincides with this project.”

Expand

jes sachse, "Freedom Tube," 2013, Intergenerational LGBT Artist Residency, Artscape Gibraltar Point, Toronto Island. Photo by Raphaële Frigon.

Re: Celebrating the Body is the most recent in a series of projects initiated by visiting French curator Fabien Pinaroli that channel the spirit and energy of the original 1976 exhibition. In 2012, he produced exhibitions with Iain Baxter& at the Musée des Moulages in Lyon and CAP Saint-Fons (France) as well as conference-performances at University College London and Raven Row (UK). Joining the curatorial team are Timothy Long, Head Curator at the MacKenzie Art Gallery, and Robin Poitras, Artistic Director of Regina’s acclaimed contemporary dance company New Dance Horizons, whose season of programming will be based at the MacKenzie as part of their residency Re: Celebrating the Body: art + dance + life.

“Since first bringing yoga, and other unconventional art and activities, into the gallery in 1976, Iain Baxter& and Ingrid Baxter have been responsible for creating a highly original dialogue between art and the body,” says Timothy Long, the MacKenzie Art Gallery’s Head Curator. “Thanks to the work of French curator Fabien Pinaroli, we are pleased to continue the conversation at the MacKenzie with an outstanding group of artists, dancers and community collaborators.”

Regina’s New Dance Horizons will present their regular season of programming alongside the exhibition, featuring performances by Bill Coleman, Compagnie Marie Chouinard, Frédérick Gravel, NDH/Rouge-gorge, Prairie Dance Circuit, Robin Poitras, Edward Poitras, Stream of Dance Festival, James Viveiros, and others.

“New Dance Horizons is thrilled to be back at the MacKenzie Art Gallery for Re: Celebrating the Body,” says Robin Poitras, New Dance Horizons’ Artist Director. “We’re very excited to present our 32nd season of programming alongside this innovative, inclusive, and thought-provoking exhibition.”

In conjunction with the exhibition, the MacKenzie is happy to announce the launch of the English translation of the book Re: Towards a minor history of exhibitions and performances, edited by Fabien Pinaroli with textual and visual essays by 17 contributors. Originally published in French (it: éditions, 2014), the publication reflects on the original 1976 exhibition Celebration of the Body and its 2012 reactivation by examining strategies of reprise – re-publication, the pirated catalogue, judicial enquiry, re-animation, and memory assisted by video-recording, among others. Contributors include: Jean-Philippe Antoine, Pierre Bal-Blanc, Kiff Bamford, Lucas Bouissou, Olivier Bosson, Mathieu Copeland, Christophe Domino, Will Holder, Adam Lauder, Ju Hyun Lee & Ludovic Burel, CS Leigh, MoM (Museum Of Museum), Warren Neidich, Émilie Parendeau, Fabien Pinaroli, and Adrien Sina.

Re: Celebrating the Body is organized by the MacKenzie Art Gallery and New Dance Horizons, presented with the support of Canada Council for the Arts, SaskCulture, Saskatchewan Arts Board, City of Regina, University of Regina, South Saskatchewan Community Foundation, Government of Canada, CanDance, Community Initiatives Fund, Dance Saskatchewan Inc., and Business for the Arts. Program partners include Le Conseil culturel fransaskois, Regina Musical Club, and Regina Symphony Orchestra. The MacKenzie Art Gallery and New Dance Horizons acknowledge and thank their members, donors, and volunteers.

Source: MacKenzie Art Gallery