Mobile Frames Program Launch, Daïchi Saïto in Residence at Civic Space

Mobile Frames - Daichi

Mobile Frames: International Filmmakers in Residence Launches 2014 Schedule with Daïchi Saïto (Montréal)

Media City Film Festival in partnership with Broken City LabCommon Ground Gallery and Momentum Film & Video Collective are excited to introduce the new Mobile Frames: Filmmaker in Residence program to the Windsor / Detroit region. Mobile Frames invites emerging and established artists from around the world to create new films in Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan. The visiting filmmakers will also lead free public film workshops and participate in lectures, screenings, exhibitions and other programs on both sides of the border.

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The first Mobile Frames resident, Montréal’s Daïchi Saïto, has arrived and will be working out of Civic Space until the end of February. Originally from Japan, Daïchi Saïto is a co-founder of Double Negative, an artist’s collective in Montréal dedicated to the exhibition and production of experimental cinema. Saïto’s films have screened at festivals and cinematheques worldwide and are collected and distributed by numerous prominent institutions for artist’s film in Europe and Canada. Saïto has taught cinema at NSCAD University in Halifax, Concordia University in Montréal and he Escuela Internacional de Cine y TV in Cuba.

Daïchi will also be leading Introduction to 16mm Filmmaking,  a free public workshop series on the fundamentals of do-it-yourself 16mm filmmaking at CIVIC Space (411 Pelissier Street, Windsor)

Intro to 16mm Filmmaking | Part 1 – Thursday, February 13th (1-5pm)

Intro to 16mm Filmmaking | Part 2 – Saturday, February 15th (9am-6pm)

Intro to 16mm Filmmaking | Part 3 – Sunday, February 16th (1-5pm)

All materials are supplied and no previous experience is requiredTo Register, email mobileframes@live.com

Mobile Frames is made possible with the generous support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation. Media City also acknowledges the support of the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.

For more information contact:

Andrea Slavik, Mobile Frames Project Co-ordinator
Oona Mosna, Media City Program Director

Top Image: Still from Trees of Syntax, Leaves of Axis (2009)

“Foam” by Kohei Nawa

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Some of the best installation work can make you believe, even for a split second, that you have entered another world, or a place totally alien or unfamiliar. Artists have made naturally occurring phenomena like clouds appear in a gallery setting using a handful of tactics, but this work by Kohei Nawa uses foam to achieve it’s cloud-like effervescence.

The installation reads like a greyscale landscape of primordial ooze, with mountain-like ridges and valleys suspended on a layer of black sand. It’s lit in such a way that some portions of the foam take on the appearance of clouds, while some remain ambiguous, melting blobs.

via: Colossal

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All Images: Foam, 2013. Mixed media. Photo by Nobutada Omote, courtesy of SANDWICH.

Shaping our City: Brainstorming Session at Civic Space Tomorrow!

BCL Workshop

Friday, January 3rd, 2013 at 7pm – CIVIC Space (411 Pelissier Street, Windsor, Ontario)

As static as Windsor might seem at times, it is definitely going through some changes. Our downtown is a lot brighter because of the large screens on the Windsor Star building, the University of Windsor’s downtown campus opens next year, the aquatic centre is opening this year, we have a new bridge that may be completed in 2020, the new Penalty Box location is reviving a historical building on University Avenue West, and the old Grace Hospital has been torn down.

In the vein of our previous project, City Counseling (Session #1), we’ll be talking through new ideas and changes happening in the city, as a group. The goal of this brainstorm session is to bring people together, learn something new about Windsor, and contribute creative perspectives for shaping this city. I hope you can make it down to Civic Space tomorrow at 7 pm (January 3rd) to contribute to these conversations.

This event is a collaboration with Life In a Border Town.

Street Installations by SpY

SpY - Balloons

SpY is an urban artist who has been practicing forms of intervention, mostly traditional graffiti, since the mid-1980s. More recently, he has chosen to work within the confines of urban elements, often playing with their intentions and using them as a “palette of materials”.

I suggest checking out this book for a nice overview of urban intervention art like this. Much of it has a strong element of humour, wit, or playfulness. To me, the strength of this type of work lies in its ability to ambush your everyday life, disrupt your routine, or at the least, make you reconsider what the things around us are made of.

Image Above: Balloons (2008)

via: Colossal

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SpY – 0 Likes (2013)

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SpY – Live (2012)

One Woman Workshop: A ResidenZINE by Rosina Riccardo

One Woman Workshop

One Woman Workshop: A ResidenZINE by Rosina Riccardo

Saturday, December 14th to Sunday, December 15th, 2013 – CIVIC Space (411 Pelissier Street, Windsor, Ontario)

A zine is a small edition of self-made, self-published bodies of work made up of text, photos, or found content. Since 2010, Rosina Riccardo has been creating and assembling zines of her own, and most recently hosts Zine Workshop Nights at CIVIC Space on a bi-weekly basis (the next date being Wednesday, December 18th at 7pm).

For a new and upcoming two-day (weekend) residency, Rosina will create content from scratch, which will reflect her time spent observing and interacting with the downtown core. Upon completion, a limited run of the zines will be made available to the public at Civic Space. Stay tuned for more info!

Sphinxxx: The Sound of Windsor by Chris Flanagan

Sphinxxx - The Sound of Windsor (2013)

Sphinxxx: The Sound of Windsor by Chris Flanagan

Exhibition on view from December 5th to 30th – Opening Reception on Thursday, December 5th at 7pm – CIVIC Space (411 Pelissier Street, Windsor)

Chris Flanagan has created a site-specific installation work based on Windsor’s musical history and hypothetical stories based on the city’s relationship with Detroit and waves of migration. He will be presenting this work (artifacts, sound clips, and process documentation) at CIVIC Space and around the city.

Please join us on Thursday, December 5th at 7pm for an opening reception and to explore the artifacts Chris has uncovered. The artist will be present and is looking forward to discussing Windsor / Detroit’s musical histories. If you’re unable to make it to the opening, the exhibition will be up in CIVIC Space until the end of December.


Chris Flanagan is a Toronto-based installation artist. His work is concerned with music, secret societies and fabricated historical narratives. He has exhibited widely in public galleries across Australia and Canada.

For more information, please visit: www.chrisflanaganart.com

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No Experience Necessary: A Workshop Series by Momentum Film & Video Collective

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No Experience Necessary – Experiments with Video: Hosted by Momentum Film & Video Collective

Saturday, December 7th from 12-5pm – CIVIC Space (411 Pelissier Street, Windsor)

This workshop, hosted by Windsor’s very own Momentum Film & Video Collective and happening at Broken City Lab’s CIVIC Space, will explore several historical and contemporary concepts and practices of experimental video through screenings, discussions and a hands on video production and editing project. If you’re interested in digital and analog video, this workshop will help you sharpen your skills in visual experimentation and allow you a chance to create with others. We hope to see you there!

Feel free to bring your own camera for shooting & computer for editing.

WORKSHOP OVERVIEW

Presentation / Discussion / Screening
Tech Talk: Digital and Analog Video Capturing / Editing Strategies
Themes / Concepts / Imagery for Experimenting
Shooting & Editing
Present in-workshop Experiments

There is a nominal fee of $10 to attend this workshop. Please pre-register by emailing momentumfilm@live.com.

Rodrigo Marti on his Artistic Practice and Working at CIVIC Space

Just last month our friend Rodrigo Marti put together a project here at CIVIC Space, the substantially titled, “THANKSGIVING * DIA DE ACCION DE GRACIA * FOR THE LOVE OF GOD * POR EL AMOR DE DIOS * CLOTHING SWAP * MERCADO TRUEQUE DE ROPA“. Near the end of Rodrigo’s stay in Windsor, he sat down with Dennis Hunkler of ArtWindsor, which is a fairly new web-only Windsor arts resource put together by Arturo Herrera. It features, among other things, interviews with Windsor artists, most of whom are just starting their careers in the arts and are speculating as to what will happen. It’s an interesting twist on conventional artist interviews and in the best cases, helps to capture a time of unlimited possibility.

After chatting with Dennis earlier in the setup of his show, Rodrigo sat down again and discussed the issues surrounding the kind of work he does, the misconceptions that often arise, and how he intended the work to function.

To learn more about Rodrigo’s work, please visit here.

Opt0ut Man: A Department of Unusual Certainties Project

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Opt0ut Man: A Department of Unusual Certainties Project

November 8th to 30th – CIVIC Space (411 Pelissier Street, Windsor, Ontario)

Join us November 23rd, between noon to 5pm, to talk taxes!

We’re thrilled to announce that our good friends Chris & Simon of Department of Unusual Certainties (they have worked with us here and here and will be part of Neighbourhood Spaces 2014) are back in Windsor putting together Opt0ut Man, the first stage of a project exploring issues around taxation.

Opt0ut Man is everyone – the belief that we give, but do not receive. Our society has been built on the ideal that we are all in this together. Increasingly we stand witness to changing ideas of what building a society means – a strong individual, means a strong country. The old adage that there are only two certain things in life, taxes and death, begs the question of what life do we want?

Opt0ut Man is an exploration of thoughts, opinions, opportunities, facts and consequences responding to the premise “What would happen if an individual had the option of opting out of the tax system?” expressed as a story. Seen for the first time in CIVIC Space, it is the first stage of longer term project.


Department of Unusual Certainties // www.DoUC.ca

Founded in 2010, Department of Unusual Certainties integrates the partial perspectives gleaned from its members committed explorations of a range of disciplines towards the creation of a truly Public Art. Over the last 24 months, DoUC has published work in magazines in North American and European. They have also exhibited projects across Canada, as well as at the 2012 Venice Biennale of Architecture and at the Prado Media Lab. They were strategic partner to Migrating Landscapes Organizers, curators of the Canadian Pavilion 2012 Venice Biennale of Architecture; and were the 2011 Innovators in Residence at the Design Exchange, Canada’s design museum.

Capital Obscured: A Walking Tour and Lecture Led by Joshua Akers

Capital Obscured

Friday, November 22nd – 1 pm: Walking Tour of Indian Road. Meet @ Lebel Building, North Doors across from McDonalds. We will proceed north for our walking tour of Indian Road and then along Wyandotte to main campus CEI building.

Friday, November 22nd – 2:30-4pm: Lecture by Joshua Akers – Room 2101 Ed Lumley Centre for Engineering Innovation, University of Windsor (corner of Wyandotte Street West and California Street)

Our friends over at the University of Windsor are hosting a walking tour and lecture with University of Michigan’s Joshua Akers. Akers has used the Ambassador Bridge as subject matter and has also focused on crises in Buffalo and New Orleans. Join him on Friday, November 22nd in Windsor for a day of discussion and an illustrative tour of Indian Road.

The talk examines the material production of decline through a comparative analysis of narratives of the city attached to iconic images of Michigan Central Station and the political economy of the place in which it is located; a place situated within global transit networks and a site central to the ongoing gentrification of the neighbourhood.


Joshua Akers is an Assistant Professor of Geography and Urban and Regional Studies at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. His work is focused on the market-based production of decline and the crisis dependency in neoliberalism. Recent work has focused on responses to crisis in Detroit, Buffalo and New Orleans.

This event is supported by IN/TERMINUS, an organization which brings together researchers and artists committed to exploring the boundaries between media, arts, science, technologies, and the built environment.

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