Tuesday 7 August 2012

Love Your Venue: Volcano @ The Gladstone

Volcano and The Gladstone have romanced a bit in the past...

Variete
In January 2004, Volcano in association with BMH Shift and The Art of Time Ensemble filled The Gladstone Hotel with the music of Argentinian/German composer Mauricio Kagel in a vaudeville performance featuring dance, acrobatics, contortion, burlesque, clowning, and poetry.

Wendy Akerboom, Erin Bouvy, Kathleen Le Roux
Photo by Kenneth Grey
Directed by Ross Manson, the production was hailed as a "landmark interdisciplinary collaboration" by The National Post. You can read a preview of the show from NOW Magazine here.

Bamako in Toronto
In a co-presentation with Ryerson Gallery and Research Centre, Luminato, Autograph ABP, and The Gladstone Hotel, Volcano presented an exhibition of a new generation of photographers capturing a contemporary Africa, which coincided with the world premiere of The Africa Trilogy.


The event took its name from Rencontres de Bamako, one of Africa's largest and most compelling photography exhibitions. Curated by Mark Sealy, Director of London's Autograph ABP Agency, Bamako in Toronto featured an exquisite sampling of images from photographers Zanele Muholi (South Africa), Uche Okpa-Iroha (Nigeria), and Saidou Dicko (Burkina Faso).

On a sad but related note, Zanele Muholi was in the news recently when year's worth of photography and equipment was stolen from her flat in Cape Town. Zanele's photography documents the lives of queer Africans, and there is little doubt that it was a targeted attack.

Zanele was the winner of the AitP Short Program award with her film Difficult Love. You can watch an interview of Zanele discussing the film, and the difficulties faced by Black lesbians in South Africa today on YouTube:

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