www.plugin.org

286 McDermot Ave. Winnipeg Manitoba R3B 0T2 t. (204) 942 – 1043 f. (204) 944 – 8663

Plug In ICA premieres renowned performance-based work to
coincide with the Fringe Festival

Pretend: Theatre & Video
Exhibition runs July 20 – August 18, 2007
Open LATE every night of the Fringe Festival 10AM – 10PM

** A New Opening Reception every Thursday Night from July 26 – August 16: 7–10PM **
· July 20 (Friday): Tellervo Kalleinen (Finland)
· July 26: Theo Sims (UK/Canada) [Artist in Attendance]
· August 2: Nathalie Djurberg (Sweden/Germany)
· August 9: Omer Fast (Israel/Germany)
· August 16: Coco Fusco (USA)

In conjunction with the 2007 Winnipeg Fringe Festival, the Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art will present performance-inspired works by a group of renowned international artists working in the fields of video and installation. Combining elements of theatre, animation, and journalism with collage, melodrama, and confession, Pretend will extend many of the themes inspiring the performers of the Fringe. And in keeping with the rigorous schedule of “fringing,” each of these artists will present their work for a single week over a four-week period, next to an in-gallery pub that turns audience members into the actors of an imaginary place.

From July 20-29, Tellervo Kalleinen will present In the Middle of a Movie: her cinematic entry into the lives of individuals around the world. From Tallinn, Estonia and Seydisfjördur, Iceland to St. Petersburg, Russia and Los Angeles, USA, this intimate sociological survey began when the artist posted ads asking people to: “Plan a movie scene that takes place in your own home and write a part in it for a Finnish woman.” The ensuing series of 61 short films (filmed in six cities) delve into the eclectic, and sometimes disturbing cinematic fantasies of everyday people.

From July 31-August 4, Nathalie Djurberg will present animated shorts that use plasticine characters and handmade sets to illustrate the untamed impulses of humanity. Through a crude, yet compelling form of claymation, she creates vignettes that revel mischievously in everything from the forbidden romance between a fox and a girl (There Ain’t No Pill), to the demeaning parade of New Movements in Fashion, to the politically incorrect disintegration of a Victorian home – and its community – In Our Own Neighbourhood.

From August 7-11, Omer Fast blurs the borders between acting and living in the dual-channel video installation Godville. In this disorienting portrait of a community straddling historical periods, Fast interviews people living, and playing the role of characters, in Colonial Williamsburg (Virginia, USA). In this seemingly documentary context, Fast cuts and re-cuts his footage to create unsettling collages of people whose words reflect a time better left to the past.

From August 14-18, videos by Coco Fusco turn shadowy political operations into the raw material for real-life screenplays. Based on disturbingly true stories of government surveillance, interrogation, and intimidation, she casts people in the lives of fugitives and prisoners. The resulting mix of re-enactment and role playing casts a disturbing light on the backstage activity of politics.


All of this work will play out next to Theo Sims’ The Candahar, which is simultaneously an artwork, a theatre, a prop, and an intersection between art and life. On the outside, a simple wood frame reveals a surprising reconstruction of a pub based loosely on a now defunct Belfast bar called The Blackthorn. The Blackthorn was remodelled in the 1980s to look like a Georgian bar (and has since become a chic martini bar), but its memory is resurrected in Sims’ contemporary recreation.


Plug In ICA gratefully acknowledges the ongoing support of the Manitoba Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Winnipeg Arts Council.

EQ3, Imperial Flooring and Buckwold-Western have provided generous assistance in making this exhibition possible.


For more information please contact Steven Matijcio or Anthony Kiendl at (204) 942-1043
steven@plugin.org or anthony@plugin.org

High resolution images available on request.

• the King's Head Pub has been serving our Phil's Pils on the patio


• The Royal Albert has Bulldog on tap.


• Mondragon carries our beer in bottles (mostly for the vegan's) but they'd never turn away a thirsty fringer


• just a stone's throw away, the Yellow Dog has the IPA and Amber on all the time. Tell Greg we sent you!

Labels: Ramblings, The Beers

Photo Credit - Chris Young - Assistant Brewer At Half Pints

Labels: Ramblings, The Story