Established in 1987, Toronto’s Images Festival is the largest festival in North America for experimental and independent moving image culture, showcasing the innovative edge of international contemporary media art both on and off the screen. Alongside film and video screenings, the festival presents groundbreaking live performances, media art installations in 14 local art galleries and new media projects by many renowned Canadian and international artists in our three exhibition platforms:
Images On Screen (Film/Video screenings), Images Off Screen (installation exhibitions, online projects) and Live Images (multidisciplinary performances).
The 2011 Images Festival showcases over 120 artworks in film, video, gallery installation, live performance and online projects in 22 venues throughout Toronto including our new main theatrical venue Jackman Hall at the Art Gallery of Ontario. In addition to screenings and gallery shows Images presents numerous artist talks, forums, guided gallery tours and parties. Situated in 14 gallery venues including A Space Gallery, Gallery TPW, Mercer Union, Toronto Free Gallery, YYZ and many others, this years Images Off Screen presents 22 exhibitions by Takin Aghdashloo, Peggy Ahwesh, Abbas Akhavan, Carolyn Armstrong, Sylvie Boisseau and Frank Westermeyer, Chen Chieh-jen, Forum Lenteng, Melanie Gilligan, Francisco-Fernando Granados, Rita Camacho Lomeli, Logan MacDonald, Andrew McGill, Rabih Mroué, Faye Mullen, Wanda Nanibush, Steve Reinke, Jon Sasaki, Lindsay Seers, Roman Signer, Ariel Smith and Malena Szlam.
The Images Festival crosses international boundaries again this year with artworks from 28 countries, including the Reframing Africa spotlight series curated by Jean-Marie Teno creating a context for Africans to tell their own stories at a time when many African countries are struggling to keep their cinemas open, while commercial films use the continent as a backdrop for Eurocentric concerns; 2011 Canadian Spotlight on Halifax artist James MacSwain; landmark documentary essay Vapor Trail (Clark) by John Gianvito examines U.S. colonialism in the Philippines and the toxic contamination left in the wake of decommissioned U.S. military Air Force Base and Luo Li returns with his second feature length film, Rivers and My Father in its North American Premiere after debuting at the China Independent Film Festival where it was awarded the Jury Prize.
Images presents a wide range of work and disciplines – from formal experiments to innovative documentary, from film with live performance to works which address a range of political, feminist and a multitude of social and cultural issues including projects this year by Basma Alsharif, Herman Asselberhgs, James Broughton, Vera Brunner-Sung, Allison Cameron, Duncan Campbell, Paul Clipson, Mati Diop, Kevin Jerome Everson, mounir fatmi, Elvira Finnigan, Ellie Ga, Shumona Goel, Shai Heredia, Adele Horne, Lawrence Jordan, Wanuri Kahiu, Lewis Klahr, Yanghu Kouémo and Auguste Bernard, Andrew Lampert, Zeka Laplaine, Oliver Laric, Jorge Lozano, Jodie Mack, Teboho Mahlatsi, Djibril Diop Mambéty, Alexi Manis, Chris Marker, Mario Pfeifer, Rick Raxlen, Steve Reinke, Lina Rodriguez, Deborah Stratman, Robert Todd, Moussa Touré and Icaro Zorbar.