On view on the Image Bar 6-10, March, 2006, 11am – 5pm
CCIT ground floor, University of Toronto at Mississauga
KHALID
By Will Kwan and Marcella Rafaniello
KHALID is a two channel installation focusing on a Moroccan teenager, Khalid and his guitar. The artists met Khalid in the north Italy, where the teenager arrived without documents and is currently living in a detention centre for minors. In the main video, Khalid plays a guitar he made using an old olive oil canister and some scrap wood. The second video displays footage of an interview where the young Moroccan explains the conditions under which he created his instrument. The two videos are excerpts from a larger installation involving footage shot in Sarajevo, Berlin, Los Angeles, Napoli, and Turin, where the artists took Khalid's guitar and asked professional guitarists in these cities to create compositions with the instrument. This "interaction" is meant to highlight the discrepancy between the mobility of objects/culture and the mobility of bodies.
Will Kwan is an artist and writer born in Hong Kong currently residing in Maastricht, Holland. He received his BA from the University of Toronto (Scarborough, 2002) and MFA from Columbia University (2004). He has presented work at the Venice Biennale (2003) and the PS1 in New York (2005). Will is short listed for the 2006 Sobey Prize.For more information: http://www.willkwanprojects.org/
Marcella Rafaniello is an architect from Avellino, Italy currently living and working in Biella, an industrial city near Turin. She is currently developing an exhibition about games and society for Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto in Biella.
Will Kwan in conversation with Tej Ajji
Please join us at the Image Bar on Wednesday, March 8th at 12 noon for a public discussion and Q& A. Tej Ajji, a fourth year Art and Art History student, will speak with Will Kwan about his artistic practice.
Image Bar Rotation is an ongoing program of new media artworks by local and international artists. The Image Bar, located in CCIT building ground floor, UTM, is conceived of as an audio-visual venue to raise critical contemporary cultural issues concerning mass media, cultural identity, current affairs, and matters of heart and mind in the context of university life. If you have questions or concerns, please contact the Blackwood Gallery: www.utm.utoronto.ca/services/gallery/
(image from artist talk)
