Musagetes and GNO begin project with Rebecca Belmore in Sudbury

Facing the Monumental (July 1st 2012), Queen's Park, Toronto ON. House of Wayward Spirits, ANDPVA (Association for Native Development in the Performing and Visual Arts).

“The work of Rebecca Belmore interrogates usual configurations of location, unmasking imagined relationships to nature and filling the abstractions of identity politics with heartfelt renderings of everyday life. She makes us think about how land is represented, exploring its mythic function in the circulation of colonial conceits.” - Burgess, Marilyn. “The Imagined Geographies of Rebecca Belmore”, Parachute, No. 93 (1999): 12–20.    

Rebecca Belmore
Research Residency: September 17 to 28, 2012
Public Conversation with the Artist: September 19, 2012, 8 PM
Production Residency: April 20 to May 25, 2013
Exhibition: April/May 2013 (exact dates to be announced)
Sudbury, Ontario
gn-o.org / musagetes.ca
@musagetesf, facebook.com/musagetesfoundation
@la_GNO, facebook.com/galeriedunouvelontario

Co-presentation by La Galerie du Nouvel-Ontario and Musagetes

Taking place in the natural surroundings of Sudbury and corresponding with the cycle from fall to winter to spring, this two-part residency project will feature a new land-based artwork created by artist Rebecca Belmore. In the 1990s Belmore lived and worked in Sioux Lookout, so this project brings her back to a landscape she knows well.

First, in September of 2012, as the leaves mark the seasonal change and Northern Ontario begins to show its autumn colours, Belmore will come to Sudbury to research outdoor locations for this work. On September 19th at 8 PM, writer and curator cheyanne turions will engage Belmore in a public conversation about her practice. This conversation is free to the public and will be held at the La Fromagerie at 5 Cedar St. Sudbury, ON, P3E 1A1, entrance on Elgin Street.

Over the winter, Belmore will reflect on her time in Sudbury to consider themes, locations, methods, elements, and materials of her work. Then from April 20 to May 25, 2013, as the snow gives way to the first days of spring and the weather grows warm, Belmore will return to Sudbury to produce the work itself. The creative process will be open to the public step by step, and opportunities to visit the site and meet the artist will be announced on the websites of Musagetes and the Galerie du Nouvel-Ontario. The final work will be featured in an exhibition at the Galerie du Nouvel-Ontario in April and May of 2013.

Born in Upsala, Ontario, Rebecca Belmore is an artist currently living in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She attended the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto and is internationally recognized for her performance and installation art. Since 1987, her multi-disciplinary work has addressed history, place and identity through the media of sculpture, installation, video and performance. Belmore was Canada’s official representative at the 2005 Venice Biennale. Her work has appeared in numerous exhibitions both nationally and internationally including two solo touring exhibitions, The Named and the Unnamed, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver (2002); and 33 Pieces, Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto at Mississauga (2001). Her group exhibitions include Houseguests, Art Gallery of Ontario (2001); Longing and Belonging: From the Faraway Nearby, SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe, New Mexico (1995); Land, Spirit, Power, National Gallery of Canada (1992); and Creation or Death: We Will Win, at the Havana Biennial, Havana Cuba (1991). rebeccabelmore.com

cheyanne turions is a Toronto-based writer and curator of mixed aboriginal/Canadian ancestry. Most recently, she co-curated the exhibition This Story Begins and Ends with Us featuring the work of Basma Alsharif (A Space Gallery, June-July 2012, co-curated with Erik Martinson). She is the director of No Reading After the Internet (Toronto), and sits on the Board of Directors for Fillip magazine and the Editorial Advisory Committee at FUSE magazine. Currently, she is the Shop Manager/Curator at Art Metropole. She maintains a website devoted to dialogue around curatorial practice at cheyanneturions.wordpress.com.

La Galerie du Nouvel-Ontario (GNO) facilitates exchanges between artists, supports the development of the visual arts community and stimulates varied forms of expression in contemporary art. In response to its members’ interests, la GNO facilitates exchanges, supports the development of the visual arts community and stimulates varied forms of expression in contemporary art. Its artistic mandate is to place experimental contemporary arts in public view and to promote their appreciation.

Musagetes is an international organization which seeks to transform contemporary life by working with artists, cultural mediators, public intellectuals and other partners to develop new approaches to building community and culture. Based in Guelph, Ontario, the organization is active in mid-sized cities where change is underway: Guelph, Sudbury, Lecce (Italy) and Rijeka (Croatia).

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