Curated by Kiera Boult

April 2nd – 30th, 2024

Artist talk and Closing Reception Sunday, April 28th, 2024, at 1:00 pm

Vtape, Bachir/Yerex Presentation Space

4^th floor, 401 Richmond St. W. suite 452

Tuesday – Saturday 12-5 pm EDT

   

Vtape is proud to present Rouzbeh Akhbari and Felix Kalmenson’s video installation Shokouk: A Cosmicomedy in Four Acts, as part of the 37th Images Festival: Rehearsing Refusal. Through a collage of people, places, and moments, Shokouk tells a story of cosmic aspirations and their earthly geopolitical consequences: a rocket launch at Baikonur Cosmodrome and its ecological impacts on Kazakhstan; the tale of an archival character sentenced to hard labour for inciting an exodus to the moon, as a rebellion against the Tsar; a conversation between 12th- and 13th-century polymaths and astronomers, performed as a karaoke duet at a fictional Chinese infrastructure company’s launch party; and the lone cosmonaut stuck on MIR space station after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In this installation, our shared attraction to the unknown voids of the cosmos collides with the imperialism and violence of space infrastructure.

Please join us on Sunday, April 28th, for an in-person artist talk with Rouzbeh Akhbari and Felix Kalmenson. The artists will share their research for their current exhibition, and light refreshments will be served.  

Rouzbeh Akhbari and Felix Kalmenson, working under the name Pejvak, form an ongoing collaboration. Their films have screened at numerous international film festivals, including São Paulo International Film Festival, Doclisboa, Sharjah Film Platform, Kasseler Dokfest, Arkipel Jakarta International Documentary Experimental Film Festival, and Media City Film Festival. They have won awards, including the Prix George at Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur in 2020. Their work has been exhibited at museums and galleries internationally, including Villa Arson (France), Van Abbemuseum (Netherlands), MAC VAL (France), M HKA (Belgium), Z33 (Belgium), and Si Shang Art Museum (Beijing). They were long-listed for the prestigious Sobey Art Award in 2023.

image credit: Shokouk: A Cosmicomedy in Four Acts, Rouzbeh Akhbari and Felix Kalmenson (2023)

Co-presented with Images Festival

 

If you’re in the GTHA, don’t miss the major retrospective of Shelley Niro’s work, 500 Year Itch, on now through May 26, 2024, at the Art Gallery of Hamilton.

On Saturday, April 27, 2019, Vtape invited Shelley Niro to screen her newly digitized video works and her new feature. The screening was followed by a conversation between Shelley Niro and curator, writer, and artist Wanda Nanibush to discuss Niro’s works, which range from documentary-style to experimental to narrative fiction. With time for viewing, reflection, discussion, and a final wrap-up, the day was filled with humor, emotion, and deep engagement.

=====================================

Shelley Niro was born in Niagara Falls, New York. Currently, she lives in Brantford, Ontario. Niro is a member of the Six Nations Reserve, Bay of Quinte Mohawk, Turtle Clan. She is a multi-media artist. Her work involves photography, painting, beadwork, and film. Niro is conscious the impact post-colonial mediums have had on Indigenous people. Like many artists from different Native communities, she works relentlessly presenting people in realistic and explorative portrayals. Photo series such as Mohawks In Beehives, This Land Is Mime Land, and M: Stories Of Women are a few from this genre of artwork. Films include: Honey Moccasin, It Starts With A Whisper, The Shirt, Kissed By Lightning, and Robert’s Paintings. Shelley graduated from the Ontario College of Art, Honours, and received her Master of Fine Arts from the University of Western Ontario. Niro was the inaugural recipient of the Aboriginal Arts Award, presented through the Ontario Arts Council in 2012, and received the Arts and Culture Award from the Dreamcatcher Charitable Foundation. In 2017, Niro received the Governor General’s Award For Visual and Media Arts from the Canada Council, The Scotiabank Photography Award, and the REVEAL Award from the Hnatyshyn Foundation.

Wanda Nanibush is an Anishinaabe curator, activist and author from Beausoleil First Nation, and recipient of the 2023 Toronto Book Award for Moving the Museum: Indigenous + Canadian Art at the AGO.