Published by Leonardo Calcagno
01. Cinéma
City: Ottawa
Link: nac-cna.ca
Info: Cinéma is the story of Lara, a young woman who is searching for something grand in order to finally feel alive. It is also the story of Xavier, a disillusioned actor who is taking one final chance before giving it all up. Between them, a fictitious spark ignites…or is it real?
02. Falling Piece
City: Ottawa
Link: nac-cna.ca
Info: Critically acclaimed performer and artist DIANE BORSATO brings six Ottawa-based contemporary dancers, dressed as ordinary party guests, to infiltrate the opening night of Ontario Scene with a surprise performance. Falling Piece is an uncategorizable work that sits precariously between the real and the theatrical, and is a reprise of a work originally commissioned by the Art Gallery of Ontario in 2010.
03. Videontario
City: Ottawa
Link: nac-cna.ca
Info: Weesakechak, a lone Cree wanderer, searches an urban war zone. An incident on Cherry Beach links to nuclear accidents. A mythologized female provides a proper cup of tea. A Mohawk man honours his dead friend by running naked on the highway.
Climate change, urban expansion, dreamscapes, Aboriginal traditions, ice-fishing shacks, and witchcraft are united in this screening of short video works from across Ontario. The influence of the diverse environments from which these artists originate is central to the themes of these videos. From natural landscapes to urban cityscapes, the breadth of this province’s locations complements how Ontario artists honour the past and depict the future.
04. Century Song
City: Ottawa
Link: nac-cna.ca
Info: Century Song is a live performance hybrid showcasing the extraordinary Canadian soprano NEEMA BICKERSTETH. A radical revisioning of the recital form from one of Canada’s most exciting theatre companies, it is part classical song, part dance, part projection, and entirely theatrical.
05. Art of Time Ensemble
City: Ottawa
Link: nac-cna.ca
Info: Known for its inspired interaction with the Toronto cultural scene, the ART OF TIME ENSEMBLE has developed an international reputation for daring and eclectic programming. For this performance, Artistic Director ANDREW BURASHKO teams with Canadian choreography legends PEGGY BAKER and JAMES KUDELKA to explore through dance a collection of Johannes Brahms’s tender and lyrical Intermezzi for solo piano, with intriguingly contrasting results. Characterized by introspection and emotional depth, the Intermezzi include some of Brahms’s final compositions.
06. Human Nature
Location: CARLETON UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY
Link: nac-cna.ca
Info: Human Nature presents the work of 14 contemporary Ontario artists who look at the state of the natural world and our impact on it as innovators and exploiters, creators and destroyers. Exploring a range of such critical issues as food production, habitat loss, post-industrialization, and natural disaster, Human Nature is by turns humorous and hopeful, utopian and dystopian. The works investigate the history and consequences of colonization, consider decaying infrastructure, find new uses for industrial waste, propose sci-fi alternatives to everyday life, and even encourage the sharing of food and stories. Taken together, the works of these artists reflect on the complex interconnection of nature, culture, and technology.
Occupying CARLETON UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY’s entire space, Human Nature is an ambitious project that includes installations, video, sculpture, painting, and outdoor sculpture and performance by some of Ontario’s most provocative artists.
07. BioART: Collaborating with Life
Location: KARSH-MASSON GALLERY
Link: nac-cna.ca
Info: A lawn that mows itself, human cells co-cultured with apple cores, a feminist re-interpretation of military camouflage, and the ultimate locavore culinary experience: what do they have in common? They’re all artworks in BioART: Collaborating with Life.
08. Ontario in Âjagemô : Selections from the Canada Council Art Bank
Location: CANADA COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS
Link: nac-cna.ca
Info: Ontario boasts a rich history of visual and media arts – due in large part to its size, diversity, and vibrant urban centres. But is Ontario art distinct? Do Ontario artists have a single, discernible viewpoint? A unique cultural psychology? Judge for yourself at this exhibition in the Canada Council’s Âjagemô exhibition hall*. Ontario in Âjagemô draws on a selection of five decades of works from the Canada Council Art Bank to reveal that the most interesting conversations emerge from viewpoints that are both unique and personal.
Since 1972, the CANADA COUNCIL ART BANK has been collecting works by the best Canadian artists of our times, amassing the world’s largest collection of contemporary Canadian art. Almost 4,000 of these works are by Ontario artists.
*Âjagemô is the Algonquin word for “crossroads.”
09. The Postcard Project II
City: Ottawa
Link: nac-cna.ca
Info: The Postcard Project II is a site-specific public installation and performance developed by artist BASIL ALZERI with the City of Ottawa’s Community Arts + Social Engagement Program. The work references archived postcards to recreate a set of ephemeral Canadian objects that will be shared and distributed to the public.
10. Home Away from Home
City: Ottawa
Link: nac-cna.ca
Info: Featuring the work of six Aboriginal artists represented in the Ottawa Art Gallery’s Permanent Collection, this exhibition addresses space and place, belonging and home, and a relationship with land and territory. Whether through interactions with nature, spiritual inquiry, or social and political intervention, the pieces explore and engage with these matters from varying perspectives and Aboriginal cultural backgrounds.
for more info : nac-cna.ca