The Situated Cinema Project; in-camera is a portable micro-cinema commissioned by Toronto-based media arts exhibition group Pleasure Dome to celebrate their 25th anniversary. Created by Halifax-based filmmaker Solomon Nagler with architects Thomas Evans and Jonathan Mandeville of passage studio, the structure features “pilgrimage”—an experimental 16mm film loop created by Nagler and his artistic collaborator Alexandre Larose. From September 10-20, the Situated Cinema will travel to three Toronto locations, hosted by the Toronto International Film Festival®, 8-11 Gallery and Artscape Youngplace. As it travels, the architectural structure of the cinema will intervene in the city, creating unexpected situations where chance encounters and dislocated spaces forge new relationships between the spectatorial body and the urban landscape. Inseparable from its context, the Situated Cinema Project; in-camera explores intersections of film and architecture through a rejection of conventional cinematic representation, reinventing the cinema space as temporary and mobile.
Synopsis: pilgrimage (2015) by Solomon Nagler & Alexandre Larose
Drawing on issues of memory, decay, palimpsest and the rubbing together of archive, fiction and situations, “pilgrimage” was constructed from found strips of 8mm amateur footage that the artists gleaned together during a residency in Sydney, Australia. The original footage—a tourist’s voyeuristic, filmed impressions of a pilgrimage in a crowded urban space, where the faithful painfully stumble before the entrance of a temple—was reworked using an optical printer and other hand-made techniques. It is presented as a 16mm loop in the Situated Cinema, which is particularly resonant, as the ephemerality of this analogue, mobile cinema re-frames the presence of the spectators; watching while watched in an experimental architecture and in urban space.
Dates & Locations:Sept 10-13: The Toronto International Film Festival’s Festival Street - Intersection of King Street West & Peter St. (see. Festival Street hours of operation)Sept 14-16: 8-11 Gallery - 233 Spadina Ave (10am-10pm daily)Sept 17-20: Artscape Youngplace - 180 Shaw St. (10am-10pm daily)Artist talk: Sat Sept 12 @ 7:30pm - Artscape YoungplaceReception: Thurs Sept 17 @ 6-10pm - Artscape YoungplaceFor more information: www.pdome.orgFB: facebook.com/pdomeTO Twitter: @PleasureDomeTO (#SituatedCinema)Many thanks to the Canada Council for the Arts for their assistance for this project through a Media Arts Initiatives Grant, and to our programming partners, The Toronto International Film Festival, 8-11 Gallery and Artscape Youngplace. Pleasure Dome is made possible through the ongoing support of:The Canada Council for the Arts, The Ontario Arts Council and the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council as well as our members, sponsors and community partners.® Toronto International Film Festival Inc., used under license