The City Re-imagined, Re-invented!

aceartinc., Urban Shaman Gallery, Video Pool Media Arts Centre, and Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art are thrilled to present (in) visible cities - a performance festival in Winnipeg's Exchange District from September 6 - 13, 2008.

Transforming, Shape-shifting Artists!

(in) visible cities will include live performances and performative events by an array of internationally-renowned artists including: Cheryl L’Hirondelle (Vancouver), Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan (Winnipeg), FASTWÜRMS (Creemore, ON), Jessica Thompson (Toronto), and Nhan Duc Nguyen (Vancouver). Cultural theorist Jeanne Randolph (Winnipeg) will act as (in) visible cities’ rapporteur/blogger, providing insightful commentary as festival events unfold at http://invisiblecitiesperformance.blogspot.com/

You! Work it! Mix it up!
To further engage audiences as both participants in and witnesses of the work, (in) visible cities will present two performance workshops:

Performance and Activism in Everyday Life, led by Cheryl L'Hirondelle, Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan is a two-day workshop expanding ideas of performance art practice in relation to collaboration, community, and activism.

Freestyle SoundHack, led by Jessica Thompson, is a one-day workshop/performance involving the creation of wearable sound pieces that generate and broadcast electronic beats as users move through urban environments.

Meet the Artists! Exchange Ideas! Incite!
(in) visible cities will also include a round-table discussion with the artists on performance practice, identity, community, agency and place on Tuesday, September 9 at 6 pm at Little Saigon Restaurant. Jessica Thompson will present an artists talk at Video Pool on Friday, September 12 at 7 pm. And don’t miss the (in) visible cities opening celebration Friday, September 12 at 8 pm – simultaneously happening at aceartinc., Plug In ICA and Urban Shaman Gallery.

Morphing, Resonating Cities!
(in) visible cities is a brief but intense festival bringing together some of Canada’s most interesting and lively performance artists to engage with audiences in Winnipeg’s Exchange District. The city – our city – is a network of living cultures with heterogeneous but intersecting communities, systems, flows and struggles. Through presenting performance works that play out a variety of modes of social interaction with audiences, (in) visible cities aims to further animate the stories, histories and economies of the Exchange District.

You are invited to witness and participate in events that expand possibilities for performative agency while also speaking to the politics of place – of cultural visibility and invisibility, presence and absence, utopia and urban myth, renewal and resistance. Through (in) visible cities we offer new forms for imagining how urban dwelling, telling, exchange, site and history can be reinvented.

More info re: details on all event dates, times and locations coming soon to this blog.

For more information about (in) visible cities contact:
aceartinc.  Tel: 204.944.9763  Email: program@aceart.org
Urban Shaman Gallery  Tel: 204.942.2674 Email: program@urbanshaman.org

(in) visible cities gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the Winnipeg Arts Council’s Downtown Festival Grant Program, the Manitoba Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Department of Canadian Heritage. Generous in-kind support provided by Canadian Goodwill Industries Corporation, Little Saigon Restaurant, Kensington Building Ltd and the Winnipeg Film Group.  Sincere thanks also to our donors, members and volunteers; and to our community, and friends and family.