Plug In ICA

Ali Shamas Qadeer Workshop
2019-12-02 - 2019-12-06 | Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art, 460 Portage, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Ali Shamas Qadeer is a designer and educator based in Toronto. He works in web, print, and web and print. After completing a BA in philosophy and religious studies at McGill University, he developed an independent design practice in New York City before returning to school to complete an MFA at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2014. His work focuses on algorithmic formmaking, unorthodox toolmaking, and the disciplinary and economic structures that design practices buttress. After returning to Canada in 2014, Ali joined the faculty of OCADU where he is an Assistant Professor in the graphic and industrial design programs. In his teaching practice, Ali champions a critical approach that always refracts through a practice of formalism and making.
From Monday, December 2 – Friday, December 6, 2019 Ali Shamas Qadeer will be hosting a workshop as part of Labour of Love: On Digital Economies in the Arts, a series of lectures, screenings, and workshops.

IM4 Media Lab Presentation
2019-11-22 18:00 - 20:00 UTC | Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art, 460 Portage, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
On Friday, November 22, 2019 at 6pm, Plug In ICA presents a lecture by IM4 Media Labs as part of Labour of Love: On Digital Economies in the Arts, a series of lectures, screenings, and workshops.
Labour of Love or LOL, takes the “public course” as a platform for engagement, this program highlights the various ways in which the digital is interrogated, explored, celebrated, pushed to its limit, reworked, re-invented by artists, scholars, curators, writers and others. The course encompasses a full array of events, delving into such topics as coding, circuit bending, VR, AI and AR, gaming, scanning, and 3D printing. Divided into two streams, a lecture and screening series, and workshops, Labour of Love at its most general examines the relationship between the economics of labour and the digital arts as it contends with the conditions of racial capitalism. As a research platform, we aim to build an understanding of the digital by presenting artists who invent new trajectories through various technologies.

IM4 Media Lab Workshop
2019-11-22 10:00 - 2019-11-23 16:00 | Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art, 460 Portage, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
The workshop is a comprehensive 2-day Intro to VR/AR/360 video workshop that empowers Indigenous students (ages 16-24) with the tools, knowledge, and skills required to create their own live action immersive experiences. It will showcase how Indigenous media creators have used and embraced VR/AR/360 video. Throughout the two days, the instructor will provide a clear understanding to the VR/360 filmmaking process offering tools, knowledge, and on-hand experience to enable students with the skills to create their own VR/360 video project using the new technologies.

Code, Corals, Capitalism and Curls | A lecture by Carmen Aguilar y Wedge of Hyphen-Labs
2019-11-18 20:00 - 22:00 | Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art, 460 Portage, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
On Monday, November 18, 2019 at 8pm, Plug In ICA presents a lecture by Carmen Aguilar y Wedge of Hyphen-Labs as part of Labour of Love: On Digital Economies in the Arts, a series of lectures, screenings, and workshops. Code, Corals, Capitalism and Curls will look at an international approach to tackling issues of the planet, marginalization, power structures, omnipresent technologies, and the end of sleep through capitalism.

ARP presents a public discussion between BlackLife authors Rinaldo Walcott & Idil Abdillahi
2019-11-11 18:30 - 20:30 | Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art, 460 Portage, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Lecture by Suzanne Kite | November 7 | 7pm
2019-11-07 19:00 - 21:00 | Manitoba
Plug In ICA presents a lecture by Kite aka Suzanne Kite as part of “Labour of Love: On Digital Economies in the Arts”, a series of lectures, screenings, and workshops focused on digital economies of labour in the arts.
Labour of Love or LOL, takes the “public course” as a platform for engagement, this program highlights the various ways in which the digital is interrogated, explored, celebrated, pushed to its limit, reworked, re-invented by artists, scholars, curators, writers and others. The course encompasses a full array of events, delving into such topics as coding, circuit bending, VR, AI and AR, gaming, scanning, and 3D printing. Divided into two streams, a lecture and screening series, and workshops, Labour of Love at its most general examines the relationship between the economics of labour and the digital arts as it contends with the conditions of racial capitalism. As a research platform, we aim to build an understanding of the digital by presenting artists who invent new trajectories through various technologies.

Screening | Videos by Hannah Black
2019-10-17 19:00 - 20:00 | Manitoba
On Thursday, October 17, 2019 at 7pm, Plug In ICA presents a screening of videos by Hannah Black to launch Labour of Love: On Digital Economies in the Arts, a series of lectures, screenings, and workshops focused on digital economies of labour in the arts. Black’s videos highlight the nuance of critical thought, text and prose as they enter the landscape of dream-like excursions that tell of a future-past, or one of an apocalypse to come. As the inaugural event of Labour of Love, Black’s video art grounds us in the use of the digital as a way to experience the possibilities of image-making as tools that guide us toward another imaginary, potent feminist expressions, and poetic timescapes. Black will be joining us in person at Plug In ICA for a keynote address on December 12th, marking the closing event of Labour of Love.

More, Less, About the Same | A Video Screening by Alyssa Bornn
2019-10-17 - 2019-11-17 | Manitoba
From October 17 to November 17, 2019, Plug In ICA is screening More, Less, About the Same (2019) by Alyssa Bornn in our Breezeway as part of Labour of Love: On Digital Economies in the Arts, a series of lectures, screenings, and workshops focused on digital economies of labour in the arts. Bornn’s video is a compilation of notebook fragments approximating a confession or the act of confiding of some things about pet death, mothers, houses, monotony, relationships, and/or photography. More, Less, About the Same is written and sequenced on the Videonics Titlemaker 2000. Bornn uses a piece equipment designed to subtitle video input as both a machine for writing as well as a way to animate text and images. Rather than a textual accompaniment to visual input, the artist’s texts are the visual input.

Labour of Love: Digital Economies in the Arts
2019-10-17 - 2019-12-17 | Manitoba
Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art presents Labour of Love or LOL, a series of lectures, screenings, and workshops focused on digital economies of labour in the arts. Taking on the “public course” as a platform for engagement, this program highlights the various ways in which the digital is interrogated, explored, celebrated, pushed to its limit, reworked, re-invented by artists, scholars, curators, writers and others. The course encompasses a full array of events, delving into such topics as coding, circuitbending, VR, AI and AR, gaming, scanning, and 3D printing. Divided into two streams, a lecture and screening series, and workshops, Labour of Love at its most general examines the relationship between the economics of labour and the digital arts as it contends with the conditions of racial capitalism. As a research platform, we aim to build an understanding of the digital by presenting artists who invent new trajectories through various technologies.

Cam Scott: ROMANS/SNOWMARE launch & reading
2019-10-03 19:00 - 20:30 | Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art, 460 Portage, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Plug In ICA and ARP Books present a launch and reading of Cam Scott’s ROMANS/SNOWMARE

Stan Douglas: Luanda-Kinshasa
2019-09-28 19:00 - 2019-12-29 19:00 | Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art, 460 Portage, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Stan Douglas: Luanda-Kinshasa | Opening 7-11pm
2019-09-28 19:00 - 23:00 | Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art, 460 Portage, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Opening in conjunction with Nuit Blanche

Artist Talk by Stan Douglas
2019-09-27 19:00 - 21:00 | 136 Artlab, University of Manitoba
Artist Talk by Stan Douglas
Offsite at 136 Artlab, University of Manitoba

Annual General Meeting
2019-09-16 17:00 - 18:00 | Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art, 460 Portage, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Plug In ICA Annual General Meeting
for April, 2018 – March, 2019
Monday, September 16, 2019 | 5pm
At Plug In ICA | 460 Portage Ave, Unit 1

Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art will hold its Annual General Meeting on Monday, September 16th at 5PM. Everyone is welcome, but in order to vote you must be a member in good standing (memberships must be paid before the meeting). Memberships may be acquired in the Plug In ICA Bookshop during regular Institute hours or purchased online here.
At the AGM we will present our annual report and audited ﬁnancial statements for the year ending March 31, 2019, and hold an election for the Board of Directors.
AGENDA
1. Welcome from the President of the Board (Sotirios Kotoulas)
2. Approval of Agenda and September 17, 2018 AGM Minutes
3. Presentation of the Annual Report (Jenifer Papararo, Executive Director)
4. Financial Report (Jordan Sodomsky, Treasurer)
5. Equity Committee Report
6. Appointment of Auditor for 2018/2019 ﬁscal year
7. Election
8. Motion to Adjourn

STAGES Guided Tour
2019-09-08 14:00 - 16:00 | Manitoba
SEPTEMBER 08 | 2pm
Guided Tour
bike tour of five works (Boisjoly, Buren, Lavallee, Nango, Otto-Knapp); meeting at Plug In ICA
Approximately two hours; Please pre-register for this tour by emailing Rachael@plugin.org
*weather permitting

CRISIS CANON by Andrea Roberts
2019-09-07 19:00 - 21:00 | British-American Cement Plant
SEPTEMBER 07 | 7pm to sunset
CRISIS CANON by Andrea Roberts, vocal and sound performers by Zohreh Gervais, Doreen Girard, Sarah Jo Kirsch and Bret Parenteau
At the British-American Cement Plant is located on Sturgeon Road between Park Royale Way and Prairie Dog Trail in the RM of Rosser. It is a 25 min drive from downtown Winnipeg. Exact coordinates are 49°57’04.7″N x 97°16’35.6″W. The pathway is not paved.
A bus will leave from Plug In ICA at 6:15 pm. Please RSVP to Rachael@plugin.org to insure a seat. The bus is not wheelchair accessible. No washroom access.

STAGES Curatorial Tour
2019-09-07 16:30 - 20:30 | Manitoba
SEPTEMBER 07 | 4:30pm
Curatorial Tour
Bus tour, meeting at Plug In ICA
Approximately one hour and 30 minutes; four hours including performance CRISIS CANON by Andrea Roberts. Please pre-register for this tour by emailing Rachael@plugin.org

STAGES Guided Tour
2019-08-25 14:00 - 16:00 | Manitoba
AUGUST 25 | 2pm
Guided Tour
bike tour of five works (Boisjoly, Buren, Lavallee, Nango, Otto-Knapp); meeting at Plug In ICA
Approximately two hours; Please pre-register for this tour by emailing Rachael@plugin.org
*meet at Plug In ICA
**weather permitting

STAGES Guided Tour
2019-08-23 14:00 - 16:00 | Manitoba
AUGUST 23 | 2pm
Guided Tour
Bus tour, meeting at Plug In ICA
Approximately two hours; including performance by FASTWURMS. Please pre-register for this tour by emailing Rachael@plugin.org
* meet at Plug In ICA

#witch_raku_skull_fire by FASTWÜRMS
2019-08-23 12:00 - 2019-08-24 00:00 | 90 Annabella Street, 90 Annabella Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
AUGUST 23 | 12pm to 12am
#witch_raku_skull_fire by FASTWÜRMS
A site-specific performance in the garden of 90 Annabella Street, Winnipeg.

Stages Speaker Series: Artist Talk by Silke Otto-Knapp
2019-08-17 14:00 - 15:30 | Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art, 460 Portage, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
AUGUST 17 | 2pm
Stages Speaker Series: Artist Talk by Silke Otto-Knapp
At Plug In ICA, Unit 1-460 Portage Avenue

STAGES biennial 2019 Launch party
2019-08-16 19:00 - 23:00 | Maison Chaboillez, 866 St. Joseph Street, Winnipeg, 866 St. Joseph Street, Winnipeg, manitoba, Canada
AUGUST 16 | 7 – 11pm
Opening Reception: LAUNCH PARTY: Friday, August 16, 7 – 11pm
Maison Chaboillez in Whittier Park, 866 St. Joseph Street, Winnipeg, MB
All welcome

STAGES biennial 2019
2019-08-16 08:00 - 2019-09-08 18:00 | Manitoba
Plug In ICA’s STAGES biennial 2019
featured artists:
Raymond Boisjoly
Daniel Buren
FASTWÜRMS (Kim Kozzi and Dai Skuse)
Kenneth Lavallee
Joar Nango
Andrea Roberts
Silke Otto-Knapp
curated by Jenifer Papararo

INTRODUCTION
This is the second iteration of the STAGES biennial presented by Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art. This year’s exhibition builds on the previous edition in its presentation of temporary public sculpture, installation and performances throughout Winnipeg, but 2019 has an expanded range and includes the remounting of an historic artwork. The biennial commissions seven artworks that take place across the city and its outskirts in abandoned industrial sites, apartment buildings, malls, municipal parks and parking lots.

Summer Institute II: Indigenous Architectures | Faculty member: Joar Nango
2019-08-06 00:00 - 2019-08-16 00:00 | Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art, 460 Portage, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
The Summer Institute is an international post-graduate artist research program for professional artists and thinkers working in all disciplines and media. In the 2019 edition, Plug In ICA will host two iterations of the Summer Institute.
Norwegian- Sámi artist/architect, Joar Nango, will be the lead faculty and facilitator for the second intensive session of the Summer Institute. Nango will focus on Indigenous architectures with a week of intensive knowledge sharing through a series of lecture programming followed by a week of production. The second session will start August 6th running to August 16th. Foregrounding Indigenous approaches to design and alternative models of social space, Nango will lead participants through a series of texts, discussions, guest lectures, workshops, and studio time for the first week, engaging local, Winnipeg-based, Indigenous architects and thinkers.
For more information: click here

Curator Talk by Bopha Chhay
2019-07-17 18:00 - 20:00 | Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art, 460 Portage, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
In consideration of critical and alternative curatorial practices that emphasis the importance of the gallery as a space for dialogue and creative engagement, Chhay will discuss Artspeak’s recent year of programming. With a mandate to encourage dialogue between visual arts and writing practices, Artspeak has been asking ‘How do we change the language we use to speak about artistic practice and institutions within the context of wider socio-political concerns?’ Approaching how they conceive of what constitutes ‘public(s)’ and different forms of engagement has been at the forefront of how Artspeak has attempted to change their use of language and therefore the narratives and the voices they want to give space to. What are our responsibilities to acknowledging and reconfiguring our relationship to place? Instead of terms such as ‘audience’, Artspeak has been thinking more along the lines of community building, and the mutual exchange and time it takes to build community. This requires a change of pace, a slowing down and different approach to time within their programming and relationship with their communities.

Summer Institute I: Trackings and Trappings | Faculty members: Anju Singh, Justine A. Chambers, Natalie Purschwitz
2019-07-08 00:00 - 2019-07-19 00:00 | Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art, 460 Portage, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art presents our 2019 Summer Institute Session I. The first session of the institute, Trackings and Trappings, will be led by faculty members: sound artist Anju Singh, dance artist Justine A. Chambers, and visual artist and designer Natalie Purschwitz.
The Summer Institute is an international post-graduate artist research program for professional artists and thinkers working in all disciplines and media. In the 2019 edition, Plug In ICA will host two iterations of the Summer Institute. The first session, led by Singh, Chambers, and Purschwitz, will run from July 8th to July 19th. Working under the heading Trackings and Trappings, the three leads will explore expanded notions of mapping, encouraging participants to investigate their own practice through the trappings of normalized systems of belief. Participants are invited to reorient their gaze, sensation and attention to gain understanding of how hard-wired ideological structures influence how we chart our trajectories through the experienced world.

IIY Screening and Discussion: Interpreting Asher & Trecartin
2019-06-26 17:00 - 18:30 | Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art, 460 Portage, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art presents:
Interpreting [Interrupting] Youth | Video Screening and Discussion: Interpreting Asher and Trecartin
Wednesday, June 26, 2019 | 5:00 PM
Unit 1, Plug In ICA | 460 Portage Ave
On Wednesday, June 26, 2019 discover our current exhibitions, Class by Karen Asher and Comma Boat by Ryan Trecartin through the interpretive lens of 4 youth participants. Starting at 5:00 pm, participants of the seventh edition of our Interpreting [Interrupting] Youth [IIY] program, Brett Lewis, Faron McDougall, Forest Monias, Sabba Rezai, Jacob Vergel, and session mentor Tuva Bergstrom, will present a short interpretive video produced by them. Following the screening will be a panel discussion where the participants will discuss the collaborative process.
The IIY program is, yet, another way Plug In ICA provides an entry into conversations and practices happening in contemporary art today. It is integral to the ICA’s educational programming as it gives voice to youth in the community while building new audiences.
The screening offers a visual reflection of the youth’s collective and individual experience of Class and Comma Boat, and marks the culmination of an intensive eight weeks of meeting, working, and thinking together about the exhibition; and about video as an interpretive mode. For this iteration of the program, participants had the opportunity to work closely with Winnipeg-based artist Luther Konadu who lead the program; the artist Karen Asher and film maker Rhayne Vermette, to discuss process, approach and multi-media content creation.
The youth screening and panel discussion will begin at 5:00 pm, followed by a short reception. The program facilitator, Luther Konadu, will moderate the screening and panel discussion with IIY participants.
Everyone is welcome! Snacks and refreshments will be served.
Interpreting [Interrupting] Youth is designed for youth ages 16 to 24. The program reverses a pre-existing interpretive model used within arts institutions that often produce short videos as educational devices. These often include interviews with artists or curators, images of artworks and installation shots; they often reference artists’ biographies, previous artworks, and at times, glimpse into artists’ studios. These videos are usually presented online or within the gallery or museum in close proximity to the artworks, and tend to place an emphasis on the artist’s and institution’s intention over the experience of the viewer.
The “Interpreting [Interrupting] Youth” program inversely begins with the youth’s experience of the artwork, challenging conventional models of art interpretation by overturning basic roles of authority and authorship.
For more information about this and other education programs, please contact Luther Konadu at luther@plugin.org. For general information please contact: info@plugin.org or call 1.204.942.1043.
We give special thanks to JUST TV for their dedicated and expert partnership.
Our next IIY program will take place in October and November 2019. Please contact luther@plugin.org if you want to join. The Program is FREE, and you gain a certificate of participation at the end.
Acknowledgments
Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art recognizes we are in the territories of the Anishinaabeg, Cree, Dakota, Dene, Métis, and Oji-Cree Nations. Plug In ICA is situated in Treaty 1 territory, the ancestral and traditional homeland of Anishinaabe peoples. Treaty 1 was signed in 1871, taking this territory from seven local Anishinaabe First Nations in order to make the land available for settler use and ownership (Referenced from the University of Winnipeg).
Plug In ICA extends our heartfelt gratitude to our generous donors, valued members, and dedicated volunteers. You make a difference.
Plug In ICA relies on community support to remain free and accessible to all, and enable us to continue to present excellent programs. Please consider becoming a member of Plug In ICA and a donor at https://plugin.org/support or by contacting Angela Forget: angela@plugin.org

Angie Keefer: Second Thoughts | Book Launch
2019-06-20 19:00 - 20:30 | Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art, 460 Portage, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
I half hold that my life is a fine ride as long as I don’t attempt to navigate. The least critical way to describe this outlook is “bemused fatalism,” and as coping mechanisms go, there’s much to be said for keeping that faith, but so far it hasn’t proved compatible with ambitious ideas like writing a book, though this may turn out to be the first page of a first chapter, in which case I’ve changed my life and overruled fate with you as my witness.
–Angie Keefer
Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art is pleased to announce the launch of Second Thoughts, a selection of writing from 2008 to 2018 by artist Angie Keefer. This compilation traverses numerous disciplines from physics to philosophy, incorporating biographical elements and running parallel to Keefer’s visual practice.
Without directly addressing her own visual work, the book shadows the artist’s research, capturing her thoughts, travels, and encounters across a broad spectrum of subjects, including octopuses, protons, pictographs, poets, grammar, economy, love, loss, and politics.
At nearly 550-pages, Second Thoughts is long in scope but precisely constructed. Keefer leads readers down vividly articulated paths, documenting her thought processes in an exacting manner that reveals writing itself as a process of formulating the world. Accumulated knowledge is reconfigured through the pacing and cadence of each sentence.
Keefer worked closely with designer Scott Ponik to present this selection of writing as a unified whole while framing each individual text with its own synopsis and postscript. Though all of the pieces have been published previously, many were significantly updated, amended, and rewritten for this edition. Second Thoughts includes an introduction by Maxine Kopsa and a short text co-written with Lucy Skaer. The title is pulled in part from Keefer’s 2017 solo exhibition FIRST CLASS, SECOND THOUGHTS, INTERMINABLE SWELL at Plug In ICA.
Keefer will be in attendance at Canadian book launches for a reading and signing. Launches will be taking place in Toronto at Art Metropole on June 19 at 7pm, in Winnipeg at Plug In ICA on June 20 at 7pm, in Calgary at Esker Foundation on June 21 at 6pm, and in Vancouver at Or Gallery on June 22 at 1pm.
Angie Keefer is an artist, writer, teacher, and publisher, though the distinctions among these categories are much less definitive in Keefer’s work than comma-separated terms would indicate. Taking an interest in the incidental aspects of art making and its dissemination — from critical & commercial positioning through language, to surrounding labour, and shifting market forces — Keefer often pulls at the stitching that holds the enterprise together. She has exhibited extensively at institutions in the USA and Europe, including Witte de With, Rotterdam (2018); Plug In ICA (2017); Greater New York, PS1, New York (2015-16); Kunstverein, Munich (2015); Whitney Biennial, New York (2014); Objectif Exhibitions, Antwerp (2013-14); and Yale Union, Portland (2013); and has staged performances, talks, seminars, and other series at Artists Space, New York (2015); Liverpool Biennial (2014); Contemporary Art Centre (CAC), Vilnius (2014, 2011); Mercosul Biennial, Porto Alegre, Brazil (2013); São Paulo Biennial, Brazil (2012); and The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2012), among others. Her writing has appeared in numerous artists’ publications, as well as Mousse, Harvard Design Magazine, and Bulletins of The Serving Library.

Class | Artist Talk by Karen Asher
2019-06-14 19:00 - 2019-06-15 00:00 | Manitoba
Plug In ICA is proud to present an artist talk by Karen Asher in conjunction with her solo exhibition Class. Asher’s body of work engages the figure in location, the body in movement, the mundane in tension with the surreal, captured in moments of joy, melancholy and resilience. Her images offer a set of circumstances that enliven the vulnerability felt in the every day. For Class, the poignancy of life is imaged and imagined through her subjects on screen and in portrait, highlighting the empowering effect of improv, performance and pleasure. In this new work, Asher uses the camera to condition spaces of agency, visibility and confidence, allowing an openness at the heart of what is seen and felt. Astute and playful, Asher’s approach to composition is instigated by the care, rigour and sensitivity inherent in her process. The camera lens in Asher’s hands has the possibility of offering respite from hardship and struggle.
In celebration of Asher’s solo exhibition, a karaoke and dance party, featuring a performance by The Pinc Lincolns, follows the artist talk.

The Poetic Intention of Intuition | Curator Talk with Nasrin Himada Thursday, June 6, 2019 | 7pm
2019-06-06 19:00 - 21:00 | Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art, 460 Portage, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
As a way to introduce Nasrin Himada, Plug In ICA’s new Assistant Curator, to the Winnipeg community, they will give a curatorial talk that will discuss their research process in developing select exhibitions, publications, and public programs. Nasrin’s curatorial vision is invested in the exploration of contemporary art practices that condition the transformation of place and how we come to be together. Curation is always a collaborative experience, and initiating spaces of collaboration is a political act, an act that challenges the intentions of contemporary arts and its place from within the milieu of social practice. Himada’s interests and motivations in curatorial work stems from their own background in transformative justice and decolonial methodologies that are inspired from Palestinian cultural history and knowledge.
