Event #11 October 19th 2023
Join us for a curator panel with artists and filmmakers from the Outer Worlds project (IMAX screening) and beyond. Artists will discuss their experiences of working with IMAX as a medium — the wonders, the challenges and the possible futures of this immersive experience. Panelists include Oliver Husain, Leila Sujir, Mani Mazinani, and Munro Ferguson. Moderated by Janine Marchessault.
The Outer Worlds project is an extra-ordinary film program that features five, experimental IMAX films by Canada’s leading artists. The films imagine common worlds by reflecting upon the exigencies of intercultural and interspecies communication, a task that has taken on great urgency in the 21st century as we grapple with how to adapt to the ecological realities brought about by anthropogenic climate change.
This panel will be followed by a film screening of Outer Worlds at the Montréal Science Center at 7pm.
Panelists:
- Mani Mazinani (Michael Snow’s representative)
- Oliver Hussain
- Leila Sujir
- Munro Ferguson
- Janine Marchessault (Curator)
Bios
Oliver Husain is an artist and filmmaker. His projects are often collaborations with other artists and friends; and often begin with a fragment of history, a rumour, a personal encounter or a distant memory. He uses a wide range of cinematic languages, technical experiments and visual pleasures — such as dance, puppetry, costume, special effects — to animate his research and fold the viewers into complex narrative set-ups. Recent exhibitions include Beauties of Lucknow, a site-specific installation commissioned by Massey College, Toronto; Lenticoolers at Gallery Susan Hobbs, Toronto (with Malik McCoy); I don’t know you like that at University of Buffalo Art Galleries and Exposure at Camera Austria, Graz (Both with Kerstin Schroedinger); all 2023. His website is husain.de; his livestream performances (with Amy Lam) are available on drip-drop.tv
Leila Sujir is an artist working in video and video installation. Over the last forty years, Sujir has been building a body of video art works using a mix of fiction, fantasy and documentary with visual and audio collage techniques. Her video art works have been shown in group shows at the Museum of Modern Art (New York) and the Tate Gallery (Liverpool), as well as galleries all over the world. Her work is in collections including the National Gallery of Canada and the Glenbow Museum. Leila Sujir is a professor emerita in the Studio Arts Department at Concordia University. She leads an art research studio-lab based at Concordia University, Elastic 3D Spaces, that most recently received a SSHRC grant, Thinking Allowed (2022), and a Canada Council production grant (2022).
Born in New York City in 1960, Munro Ferguson studied painting and drawing at Banff and Philosophy at the University of Toronto. In 1984 Munro created “Eureka!” a comic strip about science which was syndicated in over 30 newspapers internationally. In 1994, he joined the NFB English Program’s Animation Studio, where he wrote, directed, and animated numerous films including “Falling in Love Again,” winner of the 2004 Genie Award for Best Animated Short. He has also created VR experiences, dome films and installations.
Renowned visual artist and musician, Michael Snow’s paintings, sculpture, films, videos, photoworks, holograms and sound installations have been exhibited at, and are in the collections of, the Museum of Modern Art (New York), The Centre Pompidou (Paris), the Tate (London), the Philadelphia Museum of Fine arts, the Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto) and many others. His films have been presented at festivals around the world and are in the collections of several film archives, including Anthology Film Archives in New York City, the Royal Belgian Film Archives, Brussels, and the Österreichisches Film Museum, Vienna. In 2018, he premiered a composition for the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, presented a sound-work based exhibition at Culturgest in Lisbon and installed an exhibition of sculpture at the Bilbao Guggenheim.
Mani Mazinani was born in Tehran in 1984, he lives and works in Toronto. Mazinani’s interdisciplinary practice includes installation, video, film, sculpture, photography, multiples, sound, and music. He makes work that connects scale and perception, improvisation and ancient thought. Recent exhibitions and performances include Monitor 15 (SAVAC, 2023), Stories and Storefronts, Toronto (2022); Tate Modern, London (2019, with Michael Snow); The Bentway, Toronto (2018); Tehran International Electronic Music Festival (2017); Suzhou Industrial Park Culture and Arts Centre (2016); Asian Art Museum, San Francisco (2015); and CAB Art Centre, Brussels (2013).