brick+mortar

This past weekend we went to Greenfield, Massachusetts for the 4th annual Brick + Mortar International Video Art Festival, an exhibition of contemporary video art installations shown in historic buildings scattered throughout the town. This year's works were chosen by Mass MoCA curator Denise Markonish, the force behind the museum's groundbreaking exhibition Oh, Canada, the largest survey of Canadian art ever shown in the United States.  Markonish spent three years researching & visiting Canadian artists while composing the survey, compiling her resulting film discoveries for this year's video festival.

The films were shown in spaces that are not normally open to the general public, & the varied atmospheres, histories & architecture of each venue added another layer of mystery & discovery to the experience. 

This year selected artists gave live performances, including Johanne Zits, pictured above, performing his piece, Snow Mounds / Enacting the Screen, for three hours on a continuous loop. With the door adjacent to the Polish-American Hall's stage thrown open wide & a fan bringing in the cool night air, Zits, according to the artist's statement for the piece, ... uses movement and interactions along with digital static to subvert the tropes that perpetuate the heroicized "Man-in-nature" construct. The natural environment interacts as a "body" and not a passive participant, prop or backdrop; nor is it venerated and fixed in the realm of the sublime.


photos from last year's festival here