The “City With No Animals” is an interactive and immersive installation running April 26th and 27th in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

Come visit the White City and learn its history, read its stories, interact with its inhabitants, and play in a world where your only responsibility is to follow your bliss. Experience walking through a city that’s only ever before existed in the imagination, peek into the shops, have tea at the teashop, explore the haunted quarter, have your fortune told at the tree of clouds, and even attend a storytelling performance held in the installation itself. It’ll be something that’s never been see before!

Featured elements:

• The White Tower ~ Where you begin your tour and learn all about the city, is history, and how the people live. You’ll receive a key to start exploring the work.
• The Paper City ~ Visitors will be able to peek inside apartments, shops, and other buildings created from art boxes, paper, glitter, glue, & imagination.
• The Cloud Tree ~ A definitely to scale size tree wrapped in clouds where visitors can play a fortune telling game!
• Beneath the Rose Teashop ~ A teashop where visitors can get a complimentary cup of tea and learn the mysterious history of the city’s favourite theatre, read the weekly newspaper, or other printed materials from the city.
• Oprea Garden ~ A large paper garden that visitors can sit in and curiously, even smell!
• Fourth Quarter Gate ~ Peer inside to see the ghostly forms of the haunted Fourth Quarter!

Friday, April 26th 5:00 -9:00 p.m.
Saturday, April 27th 5:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Storytelling – Saturday at 6:00 p.m. only
$5 admission at door

Tour the installation from 5 – 9 pm both Friday and Saturday evening or join us at 6:00 pm on Saturday only to enjoy a storytelling performance by the characters that live in the city.

Visit http://www.faeriedark.com for more information!

Contemporary Utopian/ Dystopian Fantasies

Friday, December 7, 2012, noon-1 pm at MAWA
611 Main Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba R2W 0J7
Presented in partnership with Atomic Centre

As democratic and political turmoil unfolds in the wake of global recession, new-century visions of utopia and apocalypse come to the fore in pop and sub cultures. This talk will present examples of these catapulting and colliding dreams in our society, and will investigate idealistic desires ranging from Plato’s Republic to tomorrow’s Mayan Calendar.

Sunday, 18 November 2012
15:00 until 21:00
You know where…

Oh hi!

Julia is an interdisciplinary artist and filmmaker currently based in Lyon now visiting Winnipeg through a residency with Atomic in partnership with Martha Street Studios and MAWA. She’d love to meet you and learn more about Winnipeg’s film scene, so let’s hang out together, share snacks, talk about our work, and watch movies!

The following is a rough idea of what we thought we could do:

3:00 — attendees each bring up to 4 copies of an in-progress script, short story, or poem to share by reading aloud or inviting people to read silently while we eat n’ socialize, so bring food and drink to share for a potluck snacky chow down and ideas ideas ideas in whatever form they may be =-)

4:30 ish — let the friendly feedback begin by sharing thoughts on one another’s in-progress work

7:00 — open screening of video format films, unless someone happens to have and bring a film projector….. it can be your own work, or found footage… whatever you want =-) Together we can come up with a way to decide which ones we’ll watch. We can go as late as we wanna.

All in all, this is a great chance to talk about new ideas and mull over old ones. It might even be a chance to meet someone new and get involved in something cool that you didn’t already know what happening / in the works. Fun? Yes!

Oh, now is also a good time to mention that Julia is shooting footage for her project, “Architecture of an Atom,” on Dec 2nd so coming to this event is not only a chance to for you to meet, but it could also be a great way to see if you wanna get in on the filmmaking fun =-)

Rome and the Infinite Whistle from Juliacks on Vimeo.

New York City director Kathleen Amshoff knew little about Winnipeg when she accepted an invitation to come here to create the latest version of a graphic novel for the stage.

Swell is an art comic by American artist Juliacks that has been dramatized by groups of artists around the world before its full-length première last March at Culture Project’s Women Center Stage Festival in Manhattan.

Winnipeg doesn’t typically follow New York City on the avant-garde art-making circuit.

“I think I heard the name when I was in grad school in Pittsburgh,” says Amshoff, who is helming Swell at the Atomic Centre this weekend. “I always had the idea that Winnipeg and Pittsburgh were related cities with a post-industrial legacy and perogies.

“Then I started reading about the work Guy Maddin is doing here. I watched a little bit of My Winnipeg. In my mind, it seems like a centre of experimentation.”

Swell has been developed south of the border, as well as in Australia and Scandinavia. It was in Sweden last year when local curator and writer Milena Placentile met Juliacks and offered to host Swell 2.0 in Winnipeg at the Atomic Centre, a huge multidisciplinary art space at Logan Avenue and Martha Street.

“We plan to keep touring the project both in the States and nationally, in each place collaborating with local artists,” says the Houston-born Amshoff. “It’s a lot more interesting, though a lot more work, than simply dropping down in a city and doing a show.”

SUPPLIED PHOTO Charlene Van Buekenhout (left) and Tanja Woloshen ride a bike in Swell.

The 20-something Juliacks (Julia Stein), who is also coming to Winnipeg, uses the world of comics to explore challenging topics such as death, grief and memory. Swell, the final work of a series called The Tome of Hallow County, is the story of Emmeline, who unexpectedly loses her sister after a strained time in their relationship and goes on a strange, idiosyncratic journey of grief.

In a New York Times review, the actress playing Emmeline was lauded for carrying “you through the story’s emotional netherworld, and you emerge grateful for having made Emmeline’s acquaintance.”

In Winnipeg, with cast members Tanja Woloshen, Coral Maloney, Brenda McLean, Chris Sabel and Charlene Van Buekenhout, Swell is being re-imagined by local designer Barb Choboter with live manipulation of projected images from the book. As with the graphic novel, the dominant colour scheme is back and white.

Since 2008, Swell has been a recurring part of Amshoff’s artistic life. She, like Juliacks, is one of three sisters and could immediately empathize with Emmeline.

“The story and imagery in Swell are one of a kind,” says Amshoff, who, also like Juliacks, is a Fulbright scholar. “I love Juliacks’ drawings: they are primitive, intricate, kaleidoscopic. They capture something about the experience of loss.”

Following the Friday and Saturday evening performances, bereavement consultants and educators will conduct a post-show conversation. Performance artist Lasha Mowchun will be handing out free maps to the afterlife in the lobby.

kevin.prokosh@freepress.mb.ca

Theatre preview

Swell

Atomic Centre, 167 Logan Ave.

Runs tonight and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

Tickets: $10, reserve at 204-944-1621

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 9, 2012 D3

Emmeline Grouse lives in a small town in Vermont, in a house overlooking an abandoned cemetery where she and her sister Lucy would often play. Adapted from the comic art novel by US-born/Lyon-based artist Juliacks, SWELL explores the memory-shifting and kaleidoscopic journey of grief as Emmeline confronts her fears, dreams and imagination.

Photo by Hunter Canning of the NY production featuring Katey Parker, Emma Galvin and Dan Vidor

The Alley Art Walk was awesome, and it’s still available to enjoy, so be sure to check it out! In the meantime, here are a few more behind the scenes pics of Jeff and Robert working on the fantastic pieces created by youth at RAY and GAP’s Studio 393 =-)

Atomic has been napping for the past several weeks, but is very slowly starting to perk up again.

For example, Jeff Nachtigall (visiting from Saskatoon) has been working with Winnipeg’s very own Robert Wilson to remix large paintings created by the crew at Gutter Art Space and Graffiti Art Programming for an urban art walk kicking off on September 20. Details can be found at their Facebook event page, or via the map below:

After that, we’re teaming up with WNDX to provide workspace for the Situated Cinema team – so cool! One of our favourite bands will be dropping in to shoot their latest video and, after that, we’re looking forward to welcoming send + receive: a festival of sound. The program looks *amazing*, as always.

Details about a new experimental theatre production are coming soon!! But for now, save the dates: November 9, 10 and 11 =-)

Ps. Here are a few pics I didn’t manage to share earlier including pics from Accented Video and the Autobiographical, our collaboration with Art Ctiy, the Manitoba Goddess Festival‘s fundraising event, Baba Yaga’s Realm, all of which and can be found at our Facebook group page.

Mia Van Leeuwen writes: “ok! a big THANK YOU to all that came out to the opening tonight! we are now RESERVED FULL for the entire run BUT have added an additional show for FRIDAY MAY 11th at 11pm. ALL TIX for the late show are 10 BUCKS. please FACEBOOK us or email info@outoflinetheatre.com or call me at 291.9066. xoxoxoxoxoox”

… so if you don’t have your tickets yet, you now have one last chance! Don’t miss this amazing show!

Do you have your tickets yet?

Reservations & Info: info@outoflinetheatre.com or 204.291.9066 or FACEBOOK Out of Line.