BeatRoute Magazine Alberta print e-edition - November 2016

INTERSITE FESTIVAL
intimate art experiences in unexpected spaces
The last time you saw an art exhibit was
likely in a museum or gallery – to which
the very act of viewing art has become so
inextricably linked. There is public art, but often
it is easily recognizable, taking the form of large
murals or sculptures in busy squares, drawing the
ire of all-too-vocal taxpayers; meanwhile paintings
hang on white walls in air-conditioned corridors
and performances are viewed in dark rooms filled
with rows of seats. Everything in its right place, or
so it would seem. But these common conceptions
of when and where it is appropriate to experience
art is exactly what festivals like Intersite are trying
to subvert.
Intersite Visual Arts Festival is being held for its
third year this November in Calgary, but the term
festival itself might be a bit misleading. There is
no dedicated, central location for the variety of
works on offer. Instead, the artworks will appear at
locations throughout the city including the Bow
Building, the Central Memorial Library, and other
seemingly random locations.
“We believe that contemporary art practices
are really diverse and broad, and a lot of that work
really fits well in a gallery context but some of it
isn’t ever really meant to live there, and so this
festival is an opportunity for those works to live
and be presented and to also be acknowledged for
what they are,” says Ashely Bedet, programming
coordinator at The New Gallery and Intersite
committee member.
Some of these works are performances and
Intersite offers artists and viewers a way to engage outside the gallery context.
interventions in which the artist is central, but
others take the form of objects left inserted in
the public realm, sometimes hidden in plain sight.
Many of the works are less loud and overt than
what is commonly accepted as public art, certainly
less permanent, and are more dynamic than what
often appears in galleries. Despite the wide-ranging
nature of the work, all of the pieces have in common
the fact that they offer unexpected encounters
for unsuspecting viewers: you, the public.
You might seek some of these works out
intentionally, but you are just as likely to stumble
upon them serendipitously as you make your way
through the day. According to Bedet, that’s the
beauty of the festival.
“One of the most beautiful things is when
people come across the work and are actually in
dialogue or conversation with the artist. There’s
something very genuine and lovely about that
exchange that I think is something unique to
Intersite that it can offer as a festival because it’s
not a huge cross-city ordeal, it’s very one-on-one.
You might come across it or you might not, but it’s
something to look out for because even just the
act of looking predicates that maybe you’ll find
some art somewhere.”
PLACES PLEASE
You don’t always have to create a brand
new story to be innovative. Sometimes,
you can take a story we’ve heard before
-- whether it’s a childhood fairytale, a real-life
court case, or a play that debuted years ago --
and give it a fresh new spin. Here are a few ways
that Calgary’s theatre companies are doing just
that in the next month.
The Monkey Trial
Theatre Junction and tg STAN
Theatre Junction GRAND, Nov. 2-5
In 1925, the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial
-- centered on a substitute high school teacher
who violated The Butler Act by teaching evolution
to his students -- pitted fundamentalism
against modernism, religion against science,
dogma against intellectual freedom. Come
experience the Canadian premiere of this play,
created by Belgian theatre company tg STAN
and based on the transcripts of the astonishing
proceedings.
The Kings of the Kilburn High Road
Liffey Players Drama Society
The Shed Theatre at the Pumphouse Theatres, Nov. 4-12
Six young Irish men came to London in the
early 1970s, leaving home for a life of hard
work and harder drinking. They all intended
to return home to Ireland after they made a
little money, but twenty-something years later,
they all find themselves still in London. Five
by Sasha Semenoff
For artist Maggie Flynn, who will be presenting
In Circulation, which takes place on various
Calgary Transit buses, Intersite is an opportunity
to offer experimental work outside of a gallery
context.
“I do projects, often, that don’t have a clear relationship
to the gallery. And so thinking about the
ways that I want to get support for those projects
or bring those projects into dialogue with the arts
community is not always clear. But Intersite is such
a lovely space where that’s already understood and
that’s what they’re seeking. So it was such an easy
fit when they reached out to me.”
Flynn will be delivering cut-and-pasted news
stories from independent media sources to transit
commuters, exploring the various power dynamics
in play that control who sees what and how in an
age of social media newsfeeds dictated by algorithmic
suggestion.
Calgary artist Angela Fermor’s A Map of Hollow
Spaces is markedly different from Flynn’s work in
that it does not feature her direct presence; instead,
Fermor will be leaving empty, hollowed-out
books throughout the Central Memorial Library in
an exploration of space, both outward and public,
as well as inner and private. Such contrast between
works is indicative of the wide range of experiences
facilitated by the festival.
Intersite Visual Arts Festivals runs from November
2 – 5 at various locations in Calgary. See website for
details.
of the friends gather in the side room of a pub
in memory of one of the group who has died.
Over one afternoon and evening at the pub,
they drink to their fallen friend, the only one to
make it home to Ireland -- albeit, in a coffin.
Slipper: A Distinctly Calgarian Cinderella
Story
Alberta Theatre Projects
Martha Cohen Theatre, Nov. 22 – Dec. 31
With the help of a time machine, Edward
travels from the olden days to modern times to
meet Cinderella. But will her crazy step-mom
and selfish sisters ruin their fairytale dream?
Come boo the villains and cheer on the heroes
in this light-hearted, music-filled, absolutely
Calgarian show making its world premiere on
the stage of the Martha Cohen Theatre this
month.
Six Characters in Search of an Author
U of C School of Creative and Performing Arts
Reeve Theatre, Dec. 2-4, 6-10
An acting company is in rehearsals when they
are interrupted by the arrival of six strangers.
These characters break the theatre’s sacred
fourth wall, each pleading for the chance to tell
their stories. Fans of the absurd will not want
to miss the contemporary interpretation of this
metatheatrical play that first made its debut in
Italy in 1921.
• Sara Elizabeth Taylor
10 | NOVEMBER 2016 • BEATROUTE CITY