"Performing the Landscape" Opens in Calgary

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Courtesy of the artists

Miruna Dragan + Jason de Haan, "The Wood and Wave Each Other Know," 2011

Miruna Dragan + Jason de Haan, "The Wood and Wave Each Other Know," 2011

Illingworth Kerr Gallery (IKG) and Alberta College of Art + Design invite you to attend Performing the Landscape, an exhibition of video and filmic works exploring the picturesque, wilderness and the sublime.

Landscape is one of the most evocative tropes in Canadian visual culture, a popular genre and a cliché that often insist on conventional and stereotypical representations of the country. It is nevertheless a most powerful subject matter still very much appreciated by practitioners and audiences alike. Generations of artists have attempted to capture and depict the sensation of being overpowered by the majesty or beauty of the natural environment time and time again.

In Performing the Landscape, each artwork introduces elements of performativity into the ‘natural environment.’ The landscape becomes a temporarily occupied and humanized space, and yet it resists the pressure of simply shifting to the background and becoming static scenery.

This exhibition challenges these traditions and the conventional understanding of this genre by presenting the work of 13 international artists who have recently reinterpreted this theme, often with humour or in a deadpan manner. This exhibition is the most complex project to date in Calgary by Lorenzo Fusi, who was appointed as the IKG’s Visiting Academic Curator at the beginning of the year. The project is characteristic of Fusi’s collaborative practice in that it brings together several institutions under the same umbrella.

The artists included in this exhibition were selected to represent a number of different perspectives on the theme performance in the landscape, in addition to a range of geographical locations. Miruna Dragan and Jason de Haan, whose collaborative work was filmed in Northern Alberta also have strong ties to ACAD. Dragan is an Associate Professor with the College and de Haan is an alumnus, having graduated in 2006.

WHO: Exhibition curated by Lorenzo Fusi, the IKG’s Visiting Academic Curator, and features the work of the following artists: Janine Antoni, Miruna Dragan and Jason de Haan, Zackary Drucker, Cyprien Gaillard, Mikhail Karikis, Ragnar Kjartansson, Hans Op de Beeck, Taus Makhacheva, Sara Ramo, Julian Rosefeldt, Bill Viola and Ming Wong.

WHEN: Thursday September 22 until Saturday November 12, 2016.

Opening Receptions: Thursday September 22:

4 p.m. – 6 p.m. Illingworth Kerr Gallery

5 p.m. – 7 p.m. TRUCK

6 p.m. – 8 p.m. Contemporary Calgary

7 p.m. – 9 p.m. Glenbow

8 p.m. – Late  Stride Gallery

WHERE: The Illingworth Kerr Gallery (ACAD), Contemporary Calgary, Glenbow, Stride Gallery and TRUCK Contemporary Art.

Report courtesy of ACAD.