MONITOR 8: New South Asian Short Film and Video
MONITOR 8 poster designed by Sameer Farooq, NEW INK. Photo courtesy Promotesh Das Pulak.
Programmed by Jacob Korczynski Featuring works by Promotesh Das Pulak (Bangladesh), Kistum Cheng (Canada), Ekta Mittal & Yashaswini Raghunandan (India), Tahireh Lal (India), Panchal Mansaram (Canada), Sukanya Ghosh (India), Natasha Mendonca (India), Ashiq Khondker (Netherlands) and Tal Amiran (UK). 22 March, 2012. 7:30pm (doors at 7pm) / Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Ave., Toronto.
SAVAC members: Free / General admission: $10 / Student: $5
Program page: http://savac.net/monitor-8.html
Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/242153752540584/
Monitor 8: South Asian Short Film & Video is an annual short film and video screening program that showcases new and innovative work by artists from Canada and internationally. Monitor 8 is a unique platform for independent work that brings together poignant films and videos that explore the ways in which human bodies interact with the rapid industrialization and mechanization of South Asian cities. The works in Monitor 8 employ architectural assemblages of the changing South Asian landscape impacting the bodies that locate themselves within that space. Monitor 8: New South Asian Film & Video is programmed by Jacob Korczynski who is an independent curator. Having recently participated in the De Appel Curatorial program in Amsterdam, Korczynski is now the assistant curator at the Art Gallery of York University in Toronto. Highlights of Monitor 8 include Bangladeshi artist Promotesh Das Pulak’s photo series Echoed Moments in Time (2011) that sheds light on the recognition and resistance of the body within a changing landscape; the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. Ekta Mittal & Yashaswini Raghunandan’s documentary In_Transience (India, 2010) follows labourers describe their encounters with loneliness and ghosts while reworking of the cityscape of Bangalore. Natasha Mendonca’s award winning film Jan Villa (India, 2010) traces the memory of architecture through her return to Mumbai after the floods in 2005. Employing poetic imagery, Mendonca presents an examination of a postcolonial metropolis.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES Promotesh Das Pulak is a Bangladesh based artist. He received his MFA at the Institute of Fine Art, at the University of Dhaka in 2004. Since then he has exhibited internationally in Tokyo, Rome and most recently he as the youngest exhibitor at the Bangladeshi Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. He is a member of the Britto Arts Trust.
Kitsum Cheng is an artist and writer. Born in Hong Kong, she currently lives in Vancouver. Her work has been presented at 221A Gallery, in Vancouver, Abeilung für Alles Andere, Berlin, Xchanges Gallery, Victoria and Third Space Gallery, St. John. Ekta Mittal and Yashaswini Raghunandan are both Bangalore based filmmakers. Yashaswini has been working on award winning documentaries since she graduated in Social Communications Media, from Sophia Polytechnic in Mumbai. Ekta is the co-founder of Maraa, a media collective in Bangalore. She works in radio, theatre, research and filmmaking. She is interested in collecting stories, writing and conversations. Tahireh Lal is a video-artist originally from Bangalore, and now completing her Masters of Fine Arts at Ontario College of Art & Design in Toronto. Her work explores the convergence of seemingly disparate ideas, in which naturally occurring systems, mathematics, mythologies and magic realism often influence the framework in which these ideas are synthesized. Panchal Mansaram completed his studies at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam in 1964. Subsequently, he moved to Toronto and has exhibited internationally. His work is housed in the collection of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto and the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi. Sukanya Ghosh is a Kolkata based filmmaker, painter and animator. She works with a direct animation technique and draws directly onto the frames of the moving image. This technique provides extreme elasticity of expression to invent, re-tell and create meaning through the use of textures and rhythms in the form of montage. Ghosh is the recipient of the Charles Wallace India Trust Award, the Independent Fellowship Award in New Delhi, and has been the artist-in-residence at the French Embassy in India. Natasha Mendonca is a visual artist and filmmaker from Mumbai. In 2003 she co-founded Larzish, the nation’s first international film and video film festival on sexuality and gender in Bombay. Larzish’s success opened the floodgates for other Indian cities to hold their own queer film festivals. Jan Villa won the Tiger award at The International Film Festival Rotterdam (2011), the Ken Burns award for best film at the Ann Arbor Film Festival (2011) and an award at the International Contemporary Art Festival, SESC, VideoBrazil (2011). She is currently developing her first feature film. Ashiq Khondker is a self-proclaimed “sometimes artist”, having lived and worked between Philadelphia, New York and Amsterdam. He recently completed a Master’s Degree from the University of Amsterdam’s New Media Program. His work explores materiality and medium-specificity in their relation to narrative forms.
Tal Amiran is a London-based artist and musician. In 2006 he graduated from the Chelsea College of Art and has since been exhibiting internationally. His most recent screenings include Videocracy, International Video Art Festival in Hungary (2011), Asolo Art Film Festival in Italy (2011), the Pompidou Centre in Pa
ris (2007) and the International Media Art Biennale in Poland (2007).
MONITOR 7 JURY
Eli Horwatt, Michelle Mama, Swapnaa Tamhane and Rathan.
Please join us for Monitor 8: New South Asian Short Film & Video
22 March, 2012. 7:30pm (doors at 7pm)
Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Ave., Toronto.
SAVAC members: Free / General admission: $10/ Students $5 ABOUT SAVAC
SAVAC (South Asian Visual Arts Centre) is the only non-profit, artist-run centre in Canada dedicated to the development and presentation of contemporary visual art by South Asian artists. Our mission is to produce innovative programs that critically explore issues and ideas shaping South Asian identities and experiences. We encourage work that is challenging, experimental and engaged in critical discussions on visual forms and processes, and which offer new perspectives on the contemporary world. SAVAC’s programming is national in scope, but we are actively engaged with regional and international discussions informing the development of contemporary South Asian art. SAVAC plays a vital role in the visual arts sector in Canada by advocating for South Asian artists and culturally diverse issues and practices. For more information on Monitor 8: New South Asian Short Film & Video please contact Sharlene Bamboat, Programming Coordinator at info@savac.net or call 416-542-1661.
SAVAC (South Asian Visual Arts Centre)
401 Richmond St. W., Suite 450
Toronto, ON M5V 3A8
Canada
Toronto, ON M5V 3A8
Canada
416-542-1661 | info@savac.net | www.savac.net
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Cultural Pluralism in the Arts Movement Ontario (CPAMO) 