Tag: Istvan Kantor

Hungary / Canada
www.istvankantor.com

Istvan Kantor (a.k.a. Monty Cantsin) is active in the fields of robotics, sound, video, performance and new media. His work has been shown at many prestigious international art events, including Documenta ’87 and Arts Electronica 2000. He has received the Telefilm Canada Award for Best Canadian Video (1998 Images festival, Toronto), as well as the Transmediale 01 award in Berlin, Germany for his new video Broadcast. Infamous for his “blood-x donations” to the collections of the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the National Gallery (Ottawa), AGO (Toronto), and the Ludwig Museum (Koln), just to mention a few, Kantor/Cantsin’s criminal records are even longer than his list of awards. The media and critics have described his work as rebellious, anti-authoritarian, and intellectually assaulting, as well as technically innovative and highly experimental. Internationally known as the founder of Neoism, Kantor has lived in Budapest, Paris, Montréal, Portland and New York. He has lived in Toronto since 1991.

Life=Art=Life is designed to be an exploratory forum evaluating the past and present trends of performance art in the context of everyday life. Under the auspices of Blank Slate, the weekend event will bring together local and international artists and theorists to present and discuss their work.

The artists include local tableau-vivant diva, Louise Liliefeldt; art-action ambassador Richard Martel from Québec City; writer, professor and Dr. of destruction and art theory Kristine Stiles from North Carolina; and self-declared non-artist Tehching Hsieh from New York City forever famous for his one year performances. Among guests at the Sunday panel discussion will be One Night Only, a Regina based performance art collective, in Toronto for their event Home Repair hosted by FADO. The six members of the group are Adam Budd, Felipe Diaz, Blair Fornwald, Tanis Keiner, Tammy McGrath, and Anna Scott.

Today it seems to us, that performance art, as a rebellious and revolutionary force, has completed its mandate by infiltrating every aspect of life. The life=art=life theory, historically supported by the avant garde, has never been more relevant than today.

If it is true that performance art, as a social engine and generator of change, has accomplished its mission, then what is its’ place in current artistic activities and everyday life?Blank Slate hosts forums for discussions, critical talks, conferences, workshops and interdisciplinary events, conducted in a non-intimidating environment. Participants are encouraged to freely express their ideas concerning today’s artistic activities, new trends, theoretical issues and practical methods. The purpose of Blank Slate is to encourage everyone in the exploration of creative ideas and critical thinking, blending together science, technology, philosophy, politics and art.

Event coordinated by Istvan Kantor and Karen Schreiber
Curated by Istvan Kantor

ABOUT BLANK SLATE
The first Blank Slate event took place in 2003 and was marked by the world famous blackout that put Blank Slate into the right track of enlightening discussion. Since, Blank Slate has hosted ten Discussion cocktail events with local and international artists and has co-operated with performance art agency Fado Perfomance Inc. Participants have included action-artist Gusztav Uto from Transylvania, Canadian Art editor Richard Rhodes, artist stand-ups Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan from Winnipeg, avant-garde legends Eldon Garnet and Istvan Kantor, Toronto Arts Council visionary Jim Garrard, emerging local talents Maria Legault, Jennifer Matotek and Beth McEachen. The Blank Slate strategy based on the practical doctrine that life is a collective social sculpture and everyone is an artist/constructor/architect.

Performances by Louise Liliefeldt, Richard Martel
February 20, 2004 @ 7:30pm
Karen Schreiber Gallery, 25 Morrow Avenue, Toronto

Performances/Videos/DJ by Ulysses Castellanos, Marlee Cargill, Lewis Kaye, Machinesexactiongroup
February 20, 2004 @ 10:00pm–dawn
Polish Canadian Legion No.621, 2290 Dundas Street West, Toronto

Performances by Tehching Hsieh, Kristine Stiles
February 21, 2004 @ 7:30pm
Karen Schreiber Gallery, 25 Morrow Avenue, Toronto

Panel discussion with the artists from One Night Only, Life=Art=Life
February 22, 2004 @ 2:00pm
Karen Schreiber Gallery, 25 Morrow Avenue, Toronto

Presented by Blank Slate with support from the 7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art.

FADO is pleased to present The Addmore Session, a new work by internationally acclaimed Toronto artist Istvan Kantor. Presented as part of FADO’s Public Spaces / Private Places series, The Addmore Session is the latest instalment in The File Cabinet Project, a body of work that Kantor has been developing since 1993.

Audience members are invited to meet Kantor in his favourite environment, surrounded by file cabinets in Addmore Office Furniture, one of Toronto’s largest office furniture stores. Kantor and a number of guest performers will demonstrate the links between the office and the concert hall, information technology and sexual symbolism, communication and insanity. The all-day performance will include a furniture-opera, desktop-dancing, cabinet-catwalking, office-crucifixion and much more.

Kantor explores the file cabinet as a sculptural element in machinery installations, performances and video productions. His interest is more than a physical fascination or aesthetic obsession with monolithic office furniture. In Kantor’s hyper-theoretical interpretation, the world wide web is a machinery-monument of information storage furniture interconnected through computers. The gesture of moving cabinet drawers in and out, sliding them back and forth, becomes the engine of information exchange.

© Istvan Kantor, The Addmore Session, 2001. Photo Paul Couillard.

Presented by FADO in cooperation with Le Lieu in Québec City, as a satellite event of Le Lieu’s Rencontre internionale d’art performance et multimédia. This event was organized and curated by Sandy McFadden with the support of Istvan Kantor and Paul Couillard.

ARTISTS
Paul Couillard (Toronto)
Ed Johnson (Toronto)
Istvan Kantor (Toronto)
Louise Liliefeldt (Toronto)
Richard Martel (Québec)
Julie Andrée T. (Québec)
BMZ (Hungary)
Roddy Hunter (UK)
Tari Ito (Japan)
Dziugas Katinas (Lithuania)
Gustav Uto (Romania)
Hong O Bong (Korea)
Irma Optimist (Finland)
Hortensia Ramirez (Mexico)
André Stitt (N. Ireland)