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S.P.A.N.E. (Screening of Performance Art in the Natural Environment) was originally conceived ten years ago as a platform for collectively viewing and discussing videos of performances collectively. S.P.A.N.E. 2021, is curated by artist/curator Johannes Zits, whose own practice shares an affinity with cultures in which humanity is seen as continuous with nature.

RPL Film Theatre Presents:

S.P.A.N.E 2021 : AIR

Curated by Johannes Zits

DISCUSSION PANEL

Livestream on Monday, November 29, 2021

Watch a discussion about "S.P.A.N.E. 2021: AIR" with curator Johannes Zits and artists from the program. The panel will be livestreamed on YouTube, and available by clicking the video widget below once it becomes available online.

S.P.A.N.E. 2021 : AIR

The previous two screening of S.P.A.N.E. 2021 have dealt with very tactile presences, LAND and WATER. For the screening, "S.P.A.N.E. 2021: AIR" the artists have used video to document performative gestures and negotiated with the most elusive yet pervasive of subjects, AIR. A breath, dust, light, sound and someone's spirit, these phenomena are ephemeral and habitually temporal, most having an ambiguous beginning and ending.

The AIR that we breathe can also hold water vapours, dust particles, as well as countless microscopic creatures. It is an ideal medium, a medium for the transmission of light, the passing through of sound, and the circulation of temperature; so in actuality, AIR holds sound, holds light and has a hold on the flow of energy in many dimensions.

... in actuality, AIR holds sound, holds light and has a hold on the flow of energy in many dimensions.

Saturated image with digital glitches of a person laying on the ground holding a stick in the air

Still image from "As the World Turns" (2015), Didier Morelli, 8 minutes

Without a solid presence, how can AIR be touched or grasped? Can we imagine the space between two “things” as also a “thing”? How can we pay our respect to and acknowledge AIR’s existence? Watching and listening to what is in the AIR, what it has to say to us; observing and experiencing its life-giving forces are some ways of honouring and respecting this most fundamental and essential of elements.

- Text by Curator: Johannes Zits

Can we imagine the space between two “things” as also a “thing”?

ABOUT THE CURATOR

Johannes Zits

Toronto based artist Johannes Zits’ multi-disciplinary practice focuses on the many meanings engendered by a body, both human and non-human and extending the notion of the performer to include nature itself. Since graduating from York University in 1984, Zits has presented work across Canada and internationally, including performances for the 8th Encuentro, Sao Paulo, Brazil (2013); Le festival international du film sur l’art, Montreal(2013); and performance variations on the “Island”: M:ST Festival, Calgary; Yuz Museum, Shanghai; Meta, Chongqing, China; and Havana, Cuba (2014-16). From 2011 to 2014 he facilitated an Intensive Performance Art Workshop at Artscape Gibraltar Point as well as curated the first editions of S.P.A.N.E., Screening of Performance Art in the Natural Environment. He was part of a curatorial team for Duration And Dialogue (2015 -17). In 2019 the Copenhagen Contemporary Museum commissioned Zits to realize a score for their permanent collection. In 2020 he performed at the International Biennial of Asuncion, Paraguay. He was the 2020 artist-in-residence at Western University’s McIntosh Gallery, London, Ontario, where he presented the exhibition Listening To Trees and realized the 20-minute video, Checking In On An Old Copper Beech.