Social Choreography

Francisco-Fernando Granados, Igor Grubic and Emily Roysdon

Curated by Julia Paoli

June 8 – July 21, 2012

Opening Reception: Friday, June 8, 7-9 pm

Gallery TPW is pleased to present Social Choreography, a group exhibition curated by Julia Paoli. Works by Francisco-Fernando Granados (Canada), Igor Grubic (Croatia) and Emily Roysdon (USA) point to the intersection of choreography and politicized spaces in contemporary art. The exhibition aims to call attention to the dual meaning embedded in the term movement: at once referencing movement as a political ideology and movement of the body through time and space. Taken from cultural critic Andrew Hewitt, the show's title suggests that choreography is linked to organization and can intricately demonstrate and interrupt the ways people relate and interact with one another.

Granados presents a series of choreographed instructions that consider the political and performative possibilities of movement in public and private spaces. Grubic's two-channel video juxtaposes graphic documentation of the first Gay Pride parades in Belgrade and Zagreb with dancers later responding to the events in the same locations. Roysdon's photographic and video installations pursue an ongoing interest in representations of movement and the potential for corporeal gestures to convey shifting concepts of community and site. Together, the works address both the potential and the problems of representation developing out of a specific place and community, and moving into the space of the gallery. Reflecting on the relationship between action and documentation, lived bodies and drawn lines, Social Choreography at once participates in and updates the interest in how choreography and politics intersect.

Francisco-Fernando Granados will perform at the opening reception on Friday, June 8 from 7 – 9 pm and the closing day of the exhibition on July 21 at 12 pm.

Bios:
Francisco-Fernando Granados is a Guatemalan-born, Toronto-based artist and writer working in performance, drawing, video, cultural criticism, and curatorial practice. His work has been exhibited and performed at venues including, Kulturhuset Stockholm, Ex Teresa Arte Actual (Mexico City), the Vancouver Art Gallery, and the Images Festival (Toronto). Recent projects include a performance at the RAPID PULSE International Performance Festival (Chicago) and a performative lecture at the Hessel Museum, Bard College (NY).

Emily Roysdon is an interdisciplinary artist and writer based in New York and Stockholm. Her work has been shown at the 2010 Whitney Biennial, Greater NY at PS1; Manifesta 8 (Murcia), Bucharest Bienniale 4, Participant, Inc. (NY); Generali Foundation (Vienna); New Museum (NY); and the Power Plant (Toronto). Recent solo shows include new commissions from Art in General (NY), Konsthall C (Stockholm) and a Matrix commission from the Berkeley Art Museum. Her videos have been screened widely, most recently at the Berlinale and the Images Festival (Toronto).

Igor Grubic has been active as a multimedia artist since 1996. His work includes site-specific interventions in public spaces, performances, photography and video works. His work has been exhibited at Manifesta 4 (Frankfurt), Tirana Biennale 2, 50th October Art Salon (Belgrade), 11th Istanbul Biennale and Manifesta 9 (Genk).

Julia Paoli is an independent curator and writer based in Toronto. In 2011 she was awarded Vtape's Curatorial Incubator residency where she mounted an exhibition of work by Aleesa Cohene. Paoli received her M.A. from the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College in 2011. Her thesis project included commissions from New York-based artists A.K. Burns and MPA. Paoli was a former curatorial intern at The Power Plant and Toronto's FAG (Feminist Art Gallery). She is currently a member of the Pleasure Dome Programming Collective.



Parallel Programs

In conversation:
Francisco-Fernando Granados and Margaret Dragu
Wednesday, June 13, 2012, 7 pm

Following Social Choreography's opening night performance, Granados will discuss ideas of movement with dancer/choreographer and performance artist, Margaret Dragu. The conversation with centre on how choreography is deployed in public spaces, and invite a rethinking of movement in relation to politics, speech and poetic language.

Margaret Dragu began her art practice as a dancer/choreographer in 1971. Dragu has presented her work in galleries, museums, theatres, nightclubs, libraries, universities and site-specific venues including parks, botanical gardens, and public parade routes across Canada, the United States and Western Europe. She was the first artist featured in Canadian Performance Art Legends (a performance and publication project initiated by the Toronto-based organization FADO) to highlight the work of senior Canadian performance artists. Dragu was the 2012 recipient of Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts.


Lecture: Entanglement of Action
Kelly Kivland, Curatorial Associate at Dia Art Foundation
Saturday, July 7, 2012, 5 pm

The recent writing of contemporary choreographer William Forsythe considers how choreographic thinking, or the use of movement to mobilize bodies, can also materialize in objecthood. Forsythe, in his essay Choreographic Objects, asks: "One could easily assume that the substance of choreographic thought resided exclusively in the body. But is it possible for choreography to generate autonomous expressions of its principles, a choreographic object, without the body?"

The most prominent way of generating choreographic thinking is through the realization of scripted movement in live performance. However, in her talk Entanglement of Action, Kivland will consider how choreographic thinking might extent beyond the boundaries of temporal events into other mediums, and perhaps even the objecthood of an exhibition.

Kelly Kivland joined the curatorial department of Dia Art Foundation in June 2011, where she has recently been involved with exhibitions and performance programs including Jean-Luc Moulène, Opus + One (2011–12); Yvonne Rainer (2011–12); Ian Wilson, The Pure Awareness of the Absolute/Discussions (2011–present); and Franz Erhard Walther, Work as Action (2010–12). Prior to joining Dia, Kivland served in the Commissioner's Office of the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, as well as held a four-year tenure as programming associate at Pomegranate Arts.

Image Credit:
Emily Roysdon with MPA, "Untitled" from Sense and Sense, detail, 2010.

Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 12-5 pm

Media Contact:
Kim Simon
Curator

Gallery TPW
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