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The PROJECTIn June 2009, SAW Video commissioned 7 media artists from across Canada to create new works using public domain audio visual materials from Library and Archives Canada. |
The RESIDENCYInternationally renowned author, editor, and curator Sarah Cook will conduct a writing residency at SAW Video from April 26 to May 22, 2010 to provide insight on Public Domain. |
The TOURThe Public Domain programme of videos will tour across North America and Europe in 2011. See where Public Domain will be screened and find out how your organization can participate in the tour of this unique media arts programme. |
In June 2009, SAW Video commissioned 7 media artists to create new video works using public domain materials from the Film/Video/Audio Collection of Library and Archives Canada. The result is Public Domain, a programme of six new videos which, after its premiere in Ottawa on June 23rd, will tour across North America and Europe in 2011.
The range of mid-career and established media artists selected for this project represent a broad cross-section of media artists working in Canada. Bringing critical perspectives to bear on their found materials, the artists mine the nature of the image for its visual, narrative, mnemonic and evocative potential. While some highlight the fragility and disappearance of images, others focus on their renaissance through recontextualization.
Library and Archives Canada holds thousands of film documents which are now free of copyright. These documents cover a wide range of historic events which played a role in the collective history of Canada, such as the First and Second World Wars and our industrial development. In addition to documents of these historic events, the large collection of materials also includes home movies of private events such as garden parties, a sporting matches and scenes of camaraderie amongst friends, soldiers and workers. These audio-visual recordings are traces of the private history of individuals, and each provides a different perspective on the passing of time.
The high cost of royalties makes it difficult for many independent artistic projects to use archival documents. If royalties are not paid, the incorporation of archival material, while widespread, is often illegal, which immediately eliminates the possibility of public exhibition in galleries, at screenings, on television, etc. As a result, the use of archival documents and materials from Canadian history is often restricted to corporations and big-budget commercial productions.
While the Library and Archives Canada offers to artists an inexpensive and publicly accessible alternative to this dilemma, researching, finding, and obtaining rights to materials at LAC can be complex, daunting and time-consuming. In order to facilitate access to audiovisual works in the public domain and to eliminate many of the obstacles which could hinder artists' research, SAW Video has provided research support throughout the duration of the Public Domain project. In screening the new videos and describing the process of this past year, Public Domain seeks to inspire artists to see the archives as a treasure trove for their own work. The project also raises broader questions issues on copyright/copyleft and specifically on the complex term public domain, a topic currently at the centre of an international critical discourse.
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Public Domain is the first commissioning project of this scope undertaken by SAW Video and the first of its kind in Canada. It was made possible with the support of a grant from the Canada Council Media Arts Commissioning program. |
Due to the earthquake experienced in Ottawa today, Library and Archives Canada has temporarily rescheduled all their events for tonight, June 23rd.
The Public Domain Premiere Screening has been postponed to Thursday June 24th at 5pm at the Mayfair Theatre, 1074 Bank St.
The screening will take place between 5pm and 6:45pm, and a catered wine and cheese reception will take afterwards at a location TBA. Take the opportunity to meet artists Sara Angelucci, Maureen Bradley, Gennaro de Pasqual, Véronique Couillard, Steve Reinke, Ryan Stec, and Suzan Vachon.
While the earthquake may have shaken us, we look forward to celebrating the creations of 6 groundbreaking artists tomorrow instead!
Thank you for your understanding.
Sincerely,
SAW Video staff
Wednesday, 23 June 2010, 7pm
Library and Archives Canada Auditorium
395 Wellington St.
FREE ADMISSION
SAW Video presents the premiere of the six new videos commissioned for Public Domain in Ottawa at the Library and Archives Canada auditorium. Archivist of Special Collections Lynn Lafontaine who worked closely with the commissioned artists will be in attendance to speak about the archival process.
Tuesday, 22 June 2010, 3pm-5pm
Ottawa Art Gallery (2 Daly Ave)
FREE ADMISSION
After a year of research and creation, the artists of the Public Domain project finally have the chance to reflect on the process and meet the other artists of the project.
The artists will discuss “process” as it relates to art-making, and uncover the intricacies behind video commissions such as the extensive Public Domain project. All are welcome to attend the talk and encouraged to contribute to the discussion.
Follow us on Facebook or Twitter for updates on the location of the talk and other Public Domain news.
In order to provide a broader perspective on the theory of the public domain and its uses by artists in media arts disciplines, SAW Video has invited internationally renowned curator Sarah Cook (Canada/UK) to Ottawa to undertake research at the LAC, meet the Public Domain artists, and write a text on the broader concept of open source material and the way this is used by media artists. She will be working out of the Arts Court building from April 26 to May 22, 2010.
If you'd like to meet her for a cup of tea and a chat about your work or hers, call 613-238-7648 or drop in on May 4th or 11th from 3pm-5pm at Arts Court (2 Daly Ave, Room M76). Click here for more information.
Public Domain will be touring across North America and Europe in 2011.
Tour dates and locations - to be announced
Click here if your institution is interested in screening this unique media arts programme.
Sara Angelucci is a photo and video artist living in Toronto. She completed her B.A. at the University of Guelph and her M.F.A. at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. She has exhibited her photography across Canada including exhibitions at Le Mois de la Photo in Montreal, Ace Art in Winnipeg, Vu in Quebec City, the Toronto Photographer's Workshop, the MacLaren Art Centre, the Art Gallery of Hamilton and the Richmond Art Gallery. Her videos have been screened across Canada and included in festivals in Europe and Hong Kong. Sara has participated in artist residencies at NSCAD (Halifax), the Banff Centre and at Biz-Art in Shanghai, China. Sara's work is represented by the Wynick/Tuck Gallery and V-Tape in Toronto.
Teacher, curator and artist, Maureen Bradley has produced 32 short films and videos that have screened at festivals and galleries around the globe. Retrospectives of Maureen's work have been programmed in Ottawa, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Vancouver and two of her tapes screened at the MOMA (New York). She works in multiple styles and forms including drama, documentary, experimental, and web. Maureen attended the Women in the Directors Chair workshop at the Banff Centre for the Arts in 2002. She is the president of CineVic Society of Independent Filmmakers and has been involved in artist-run culture in Canada for almost twenty years through Image et Nation, Out On Screen, Video In Studios, Saskatchewan Filmpool and IMAA.
Multimedia artist Gennaro De Pasquale was born in Bisceglie, Italy, in 1969. He lives and works in Montreal, Canada. He completed his Fine Arts studies in France. He has participated in many individual and collective exhibitions among which Post-Audio Esthetic, at the Clark Gallery in 2000, he was the initiator and curator of the project. He has shown his works in Europe, Canada, Asia, United States, Brazil, Chile, and Japan. He participated in the exchange between Clark Centre and the Glassbox gallery, shown at the Québec national museum of Fine Arts, and conceived and directed the net art project Post-Audio NetLab. In 2006, he curated the project called Post-Audio_DVD, a compilation of audiovisual works created by Montreal artists. De Pasquale has been particularly interested in the representation of sound through images, objects and installations, as well as in sound as matter, language and autonomous art work. His artistic exploration draws inspiration from a reflection on the impact of technological innovations on our perception of time, the spaces of transmission and socialization.
Steve Reinke is an artist and writer best known for his monologue-based video essays, which are widely screened, collected and exhibited. He lives in Toronto and Chicago, where he is associate professor of Art Theory & Practice at Northwestern University. In 2006 he was awarded the Bell Canada Prize in Video Art. He has edited a number of books, including, with Chris Gehman, the anthology "The Sharpest Point: Animation at the End of Cinema." Coach House recently published a book of his scripts "Everybody Loves Nothing." He is represented in Toronto by Birch Libralato Gallery.
Ryan Stec is a Winnipeg born/Ottawa based media artist and curator. His work experience and community involvement spans a wide variety of disciplines and interests. He has been heavily involved in the artist-run culture of Ottawa since 1998. He is currently the Artistic Director of Artengine.
Véronique Couillard is a visual artist who works mostly in video and video installation. A graduate from the Fine Arts program at the University of Ottawa, her works have been exhibited in Moncton, Ottawa, Guelph and Gatineau, as well as in Cape Town (South Africa) and Vaasa (Finland). She is a member of Code régional, a collective that brings multimedia art to different parts of the country.
Interdisciplinary artist Suzan Vachon teaches sculpture, video and other multidisciplinary courses at UQAM's École des arts visuels et médiatiques since 1992. Between 1991 and 2002, she taught video at Université de Montréal, first in the Art History Department and then in Film Studies in 2004. Considering her art practice as a polyphonic space for research, Vachon questions the relations of resonance and interpretation between architecture and several other media, for example sculpture, video, cinema, sound, literature and photography. Since, 1993, Vachon has focused on Public Art, installing either permanent or temporary works within the architectural environment. Her works divulge an interest for staging light and develop various spatialization strategies to revealed images onto different types of screen and by luminous bodies. In 2001 and 2007, she was a runner-up for the CALQ Award, presented at the RVCQ, for best experimental artwork. Her videos have been shown and nominated at several International Festivals (France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Mexico and Argentina).
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