World-renowned filmmaker and artist, Atom Egoyan will be the featured guest at an art symposium in Regina from Nov. 2 – 5.
“He is internationally known for making feature films,” says Christine Ramsay, associate professor of film and media studies at the University of Regina. “It’s so nice to bring a Canadian national and also international artist to be with us and enjoy our little art scene and to bring their expertise. It’s such a thrill to have someone who is this in-demand.”
Egoyan was born in Egypt to Armenian parents and grew up in Victoria, B.C. He studied at the University of Toronto. He is known for his work in theatre, music, art and film. He has been nominated for two academy awards and many of his films – Exotica, Adoration and The Sweet Hereafter have won awards at the Cannes Film Festival.
Egoyan will lead a master class, participate in panel discussions and screen his work as part of the Meet in the Middle International Symposium. The four-day event will engage artists, filmmakers, curatorial researchers and the public in discussions on migration.
The symposium is part of a larger curatorial project at the Mackenzie Art gallery. Meet in the Middle – Stations of Migration and Memory Between Art and Film has been running since 2014. It explores aspects of transnational migration and memory through exhibitions by different artists.
Egoyan’s art installation, Steenbeckett, will also be displayed for the first time in North America. It consists of 2,000 feet of 35-millimetre film strung wall to wall and floor to ceiling. The film was originally used in Egoyan’s film adaption of Samuel Beckett’s play Krapp’s Last Tape.
“Being a work of contemporary art, there’s a lot of imagery and metaphors in the way this is being installed,” says Garry Wasyliw, who is working on his masters of fine arts at the University of Regina.
“A lot of it is meant for you to give consideration to, and to view it through your own associations and to see what meaning you make of the imagery you are being presented with,” said Wasyliw, who is a research assistant for the Meet in the Middle project.
“One of the overriding themes is supposed to be a dialogue between people in Saskatchewan and Armenia. And so we are forming cultural lineages between those two areas,” he says.
Wasyliw will also help with the installation of Egoyan’s piece. “It’s a great opportunity to work on one of the more significant things installed at the Mackenzie Art Gallery.”
More information and tickets to the symposium can be found at egoyanatthemackenzie.ca
