AVAILABLE FOR FREE STREAMING FROM DECEMBER 16, 2021 - JANUARY 6, 2022

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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 : FIRE

Curated by Johannes Zits

DISCUSSION PANEL

Livestream on Tuesday, December 21, 2021

Watch a discussion about "S.P.A.N.E. 2021: FIRE" 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 : FIRE

S.P.A.N.E. 2021: FIRE is the final presentation in this series of 4 screenings that looks at performances working with natural elements. In these 4 videos the many overlaps with LAND, AIR and WATER are all too obvious and brings this series full circle. The presenting artists have taken on, for the most part, a metaphorical approach to the subject of the sentience of FIRE. Having a life of their own, the flames ignite conversations, memory of what once was and goals for the future. These artists also contemplate the aftermath, when the last of the flames have been extinguished, the most fundamental of human preoccupations: life and death.

Watching and listening to what the fire has to say to us and what is said around a fire; observing its life force is a way of honouring and respecting this most powerful, beguiling and fundamental of elements.

Having a life of their own, the flames ignite conversations, memory of what once was and goals for the future.

Three images on a black background. On the left there are two wet hand on rock, the middle image is of a fire, the last image is a woman walking out of the water.

Still image from "When Land and Body Merge" (2020), Lindsay Delaronde and Jaime Black, 8:34 Minutes

“With ash on our feet and coal in our hands we have to keep the fires burning, we have to teach them young ones how to live side by side. Because tomorrow when the sun rises and our fires have gone quiet, they will be the ones to reignite them, Yuya Karrabura, these flames, us, will be their guidance.”

* Excerpt from Alice Eather’s spoken word video, Yuya Karrabura,(Fire is Burning), 2016 *

Even though Alice Eather flame has gone out, as she has poignantly shared in the video, “we have to keep the fires burning.”

- Text by Curator: Johannes Zits

With ash on our feet and coal in our hands we have to keep the fires burning...

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.