Public. The term is one of those formidable words whose easy definition obscures the actual complexity of its multiple, competing connotations. What is “public”? That which is not private? That which is political? Or exposed? Or communal and under-appreciated?
“Public” is also, quite perfectly, the theme of this year’s CONTACT photography festival, photography being a medium which inherently thrives on chasing down fluid or irreconcilable meanings. This year, CONTACT — now the largest photography event in the world! — will exhibit the works of more than 1,000 local, national and international artists in almost 200 venues across the city.
In an attempt to capture what “public” has meant most recently, many of those works will focus on photography’s role in activism and rebellion, drawing on the social media-driven pro-democracy movements across the Middle East, and the contentious Occupy movement in North American cities. Public: Collective Identity | Occupied Spaces, will present photographic works by 16 artists and anonymous individuals, exploring the ways in which the camera provokes action.
There will also be more quotidian explorations of what is “public”, namely a number of exhibitions building on images of urban scapes, networks and transportation. The evocative Street View showcases, over the course of six decades, the ability of street photography to capture city life and its evolving social and economic climates. Bill Sullivan’s situational photography in More Turns (The Subway Turnstile Pictures) and Stop Down (The Elevator Pictures) at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, and Derek Besant’s Public Spaces/Private Thoughts, present striking portraits of men and women moving through transportation systems.
And what is the “public” without spectacle and voyeurism? These are the themes behind Jon Rafman’s The Nine Eyes of Google Street View — a compilation of oddly surreal moments captured by Google’s cameras – and Lynne Marsh’s Upturned Starry Sky, which deconstruct the various settings in which public spectacles are performed, from the architecture of an empty sports stadium in Berlin, to the faded colours of an obsolete amusement park.
As always, CONTACT successfully resists reducing photography to square walls of beautiful prints. The festival celebrates the people, processes and challenges behind the medium. In a kind of post-modern gesture, CONTACT has partnered with TVO and the Hot Docs Festival to showcase a number of excellent documentaries on photography. The festival will also present a shooting workshop by the world-renowned Magnum Photos and portfolio review opportunities that will bring together established curators, publishers and photo editors and emerging artists.
CONTACT launches with a party and exhibition openings on Friday, April 27 at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art. See the complete schedule here.
Maria Gergin is a Toronto-based articling student.