Media Release
For immediate release
High
resolution images available
Walter Phillips Gallery highlights 30 years of visual arts at The Banff Centre
Bureau de change • July 12 to December 21
Curated by Sylvie Gilbert and Helga Pakasaar
Opening Reception: Saturday, July 12 • 3 to 6 p.m.
Walter Phillips Gallery, The Banff Centre
Presented as part of the 2008 Banff Summer Arts Festival
This summer, the Walter Phillips Gallery brings together more than 30 years of contemporary art in a compendium series of exhibitions, performances, radio programming, and special events. Opening July 12, Bureau de change represents the scope of multi-disciplinary art by Banff Centre alumni from the mid-1970s to now, with works in fibre, ceramics, painting, photography, video, installation, sound, and performance art.
This large group exhibition marks the Gallery’s first interpretation of the legacy of contemporary art practice at the Centre. Organized chronologically, the exhibition showcases works by more than 50 artists who have come to The Banff Centre to exchange ideas, research, experiment, and explore new tools. Featured artists include Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, Helen Chadwick, Brian Jungen, Germaine Koh, David McMillan, Antonio Muntadas, Robert Racine, Judy Radul, and Martha Rosler.
On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Centre, multimedia artist Micah Lexier was commissioned to produce a new work using the archives of the Walter Phillips Gallery. With Touch Paper Once: Selected Documents from the Walter Phillips Gallery Archive 1976-2007, Lexier traces the history of the Gallery’s activities with an archival installation of 150 items. Lexier will give an artist’s talk on Touch Paper Once July 11, alongside artist Alison Rossiter, also featured in Bureau de change.
Other Gallery events through the 2008 Banff Summer Arts Festival include a tour by exhibition curators Sylvie Gilbert and Helga Pakasaar, with artists in attendance, and talks by artists Liz Magor and Archive’s Chris Kubick, both on July 12. Bureau de change also offers the rare opportunity of seeing recreations of performances by artists Rebecca Belmore (Ayum-ee-aawach Oomama-mowan, 1991), Elizabeth Chitty (History, Colour TV and You, 1982), and Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan (Lesbian National Parks and Services: A Free-Range Tour of Duty, 1999) in July and August.
Weekly broadcasts, hands-on workshops, and public events will highlight current investigations into radio art with Radio Free Banff, a project curated by Naomi Potter and Pandora Syperek. Public events include artist Bill Burns’s Bird Radio project with live performances July 18-20, and on July 31 a lecture by Berlin-based scholar Sabine Breitsameter on acoustic ecology. Both stream live at www.radio90.fm. A two-part interactive workshop on August 16 and 17 by Halifax-based artists Stephen Kelly and Eleanor King will teach participants to construct low-watt transmitters for a performance-based broadcast.
For high resolution images of Bureau de change:
http://www.banffcentre.ca/media_room/images/2008/bsaf/#walter
For more information about the 2008 Banff Summer Arts Festival:
http://www.banffcentre.ca/bsaf/2008/
Media Contact
Jill Sawyer
Media and Communications Officer, The Banff Centre
403.762.6475