Invisible Cities at TIAF
Toronto International Art Fair
Special International Video Project
October 2 – 8, 2008
Artists include Douglas Gordon, Mark Lewis, Stefano Cagol, Kelly Richardson, among others.
Invisible Cities:
Curated by Micaela Giovannotti, this video exhibition entitled “Invisible Cities” is inspired by the book of the same name by Italian novelist Italo Calvino. The book is a collection of short stories following the travels of young Marco Polo and is rich in its description of the cities he visited during his journey to the old emperor Kublais Khan. Calvino explores this theme of cities in a dialogue format: cities and memory, cities and desire, cities and design, trading cities, hidden cities, destroyed cities and rebuilt ones. Working with the themes and notions found in the book, Ms. Giovannotti has incorporated a selection of videos by international artists into three projections in which she explores the contrasts between an urban landscape and the utopian realm. Visitors will witness memories and experience on one hand and the virtual or digital alternatives on the other, resulting in a critical dissection of current urban societies in a global community.
Curator Micaela Giovannotti currently lives in New York but travels and works globally with recent exhibits and projects in New York, Miami and Prague. The Toronto International Art Fair is Canada’s premier art fair for modern and contemporary art and brings together over 100 international galleries underlined with a current and dynamic cultural program of speakers and special projects.