CONTACT 2008 « We Can’t Paint

CONTACT 2008

April 15, 2008 in Canadian, exhibitions, love, news, photographers

The annual Toronto CONTACT photography festival is on the horizon (May 2nd) and like so many others, I’m super excited. More info from CONTACT’s website:

CONTACT is an annual month long festival of photography with over 500 local, national and international artists at more than 200 venues across the Greater Toronto Area in May. Founded as a not-for-profit organization 12 years ago, CONTACT is devoted to celebrating, and fostering an appreciation of the art and profession of photography. As the largest photography event in the world, and a premiere cultural event in Toronto, CONTACT stimulates excitement and discussion among a diverse audience that has grown to over 1,000,000 and is focused on cultivating even greater interest and participation this year.

Each year CONTACT announces a theme that supposedly structures the entire festival. The 2008 CONTACT theme is “Between Memory and History”. Like Heather, I also agree that these themes often feel obscure and vague, in fact, I’ll go right ahead and add obvious as another descriptor:

CONTACT 2008 examines how photography shapes our understanding of the world around us and the enduring role it plays in the preservation of individual and collective memories. A wide range of images – from the epic to the everyday – look beyond the headlines to explore private and social histories.

Hmm…maybe it’s just me but doesn’t that describe the role of almost ALL photography? Where CONTACT’s 2007 theme of “The Constructed Image” seemed to fit within the current trends of image production, the 2008 theme seems to only want to rework many of the tedious “digital” questions, most of which end up coming across as completely irrelevant:

Photography has been associated with memory since its invention and memory has long been described as a continuous exchange of images. As we experience the global shift from film to digital technology, will photographic images merely become “memories made easy”?

Aside from the theme, CONTACT is usually great and includes a plethora of events and exhibitions to check out. Here are some of the ones I’m looking forward to.

Lectures

Bert Teunissen May 4, 2pm at MOCCA:

Photographer Bert Teunissen captures light and atmosphere reminiscent of his childhood home in The Netherlands and records a way of life that is quickly disappearing. He will speak about this ongoing 10-year project documenting hundreds of pre-World War homes throughout Europe. Teunissen’s use of available daylight recalls paintings by great Dutch masters such as Vermeer and Pieter de Hooch.

Alessandra Sanguinetti May 4, 3pm at MOCCA:

Alessandra Sanguinetti has been documenting the dream-like adventures of two pre-adolescent Argentinean cousins since 1998. Focusing on their desires, fantasies and imaginations, her images are both staged and spontaneous. Sanguinetti will discuss this ongoing project, The Adventures of Guille and Belinda and the Enigmatic Meaning of Their Dreams, within the context of the exhibition at MOCCA.

Robert Burley May 25, 2pm at MOCCA:

Robert Burley is creating a photographic record of a rapidly disappearing manufacturing infrastructure dedicated to the production and use of photochemical materials. His series, Disappearance of Darkness, includes the demolition of photographic production plants around the world. Join him for a lively discussion centered on the notion that photography, as we have known it, is passing into history.

Exhibitions

Confabulation / Shanghai Dragon
- Toni Hafkenscheid, Louise Noguchi
- @ Birch Libralato

Drawn From Memory
- Evan Lee
- @ Monte Clark Gallery

Sommes-Nous? Tendance Floue
- Pascal Aimar, Thierry Ardouin, Denis Bourges, Gilles Coulon, Olivier Culmann, Mat Jacob, Caty Jan, Philippe Lopparelli, Bertrand Meunier, Meyer, Flore-aël Surun, and Patrick Tourneboeuf
- @ Alliance Francaise