2012 New Frontier at the Sundance Film Festival @ UMOCA (SLC: Jan 20 - May 19)

Utah Museum of Contemporary Art hosts the exhibition:
2012 New Frontier at the Sundance Film Festival

UMOCA Contact: Emily Brunt | emily.brunt@utahmoca.org | 801.328.4201 x 115
www.utahmoca.org | 20 S West Temple, Salt Lake City, UT 84101

Sundance Film Festival Contact: Casey De La Rosa | casey_delarosa@sundance.org | 310.360.1981 www.sundance.org

For Immediate Release:
January 11, 2011

SALT LAKE CITY- PARK CITY, UT –Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (formerly Salt Lake Art Center) and Sundance Institute announce that UMOCA will again co-exhibit this year’s edition of New Frontier at the Sundance Film Festival in Salt Lake City, Utah.  The exhibition consists of digital and video installations by leading artists from around the world, and also includes performances and lectures as part of the public programming, all highlighting work that pushes the boundaries of storytelling and the moving image.  The 2012 New Frontier at the Sundance Film Festival at UMOCA opens on January 20, 2012, along with New Frontier in Park City, and remains on exhibit through May 19, 2012.

UMOCA will be open daily during the Sundance Film Festival, January 20 – 28, 2011, with extended hours: Fridays and Saturdays, 11:00 AM – 9:00 PM; and Sunday through Thursday, 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM.  UMOCA resumes regular hours on Tuesday, January 31.

Public programs accompanying the exhibition at UMOCA will include: an Art Talk by artists Chris Johnson, Bayeté Ross Smith, and Kamal Sinclair, collaborators of Question Bridge: Black Males,  on Saturday, January 21, at 8:00 PM, and a performance of Himalaya Song by Gingger Shankar on Wednesday, January 25, at 10:00 PM.  More information listed below.  UMOCA galleries will remain open on these evenings until event start time.

New Frontier is curated by Sundance Film Festival Senior Programmer Shari Frilot. 2012 will mark the sixth anniversary of New Frontier as a convergence of film, art, and new media technologies and a hotbed for cinematic innovation.

“In many ways, New Frontier represents the next generation of artistic expression,” said Robert Redford, Founder and President of Sundance Institute. “I am fascinated by its ability to both keep pace with and drive innovations in technology. Our hope is that its exploration of the critical issues of our time inspires people to consider what storytelling might look and feel like decades from now, and that they continue that line of thinking well beyond their time at the Festival.”

Through its New Frontier initiative, Sundance Institute has brought to Festival audiences the cinematic works of internationally renowned artists including Mark Boulos, Miwa Matrayek, Bill T. Jones and Open Ended Group, Aaron Koblin and Chris Milk, Isaac Julien, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Doug Aitken, Candice Breitz, Pierre Huyghe, Omer Fast, Pipilotti Rist, Tracey Snelling, Jennifer Steinkamp, and Matthew Barney.

“We are excited to again collaborate with the Sundance Film Festival to bring the artists of New Frontier and their work to Salt Lake City for an extended stay,” says Adam Price, Executive Director, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art. “The exhibition gives visitors a great opportunity to see what is happening in the world of contemporary art today and where it might be headed next.”

UMOCA is the only location outside of Park City to showcase New Frontier artwork and programs. The Park City iteration of New Frontier, held at The Yard, closes on January 28.

The 2012 Sundance Film Festival New Frontier at UMOCA exhibition will consist of:

LECTURE
Saturday, January 21, 8:00 PM:) Chris Johnson, Kamal Sinclair, and Bayeté Ross Smith, collaborators on Question Bridge: Black Males
Question Bridge: Black Males is part of this year’s New Frontier exhibition.  This piece will be on exhibition as part of 2012 Sundance Film Festival New Frontier at UMOCA.  More on this work below.
PERFORMANCE
Wednesday, January 25, 10:00 PM
Himalaya Song
Artists: Gingger Shankar, Mridu Chandra & The Shanghai Restoration Project (U.S.A.
2012, Multimedia Musical Performance

Himalaya Song is a musically infused cinematic performance that explores the majestic mountain range and its interconnecting cultures as the region undergoes major environmental and ecological change. Featuring musical performances by musicians Gingger Shankar (vocals/double violin) and Dave Liang (piano/electronics) and live narration by filmmaker Mridu Chandra, this live multimedia presentation combines modern sounds and ancient instruments with a cinematic journey through the Himalayan past and present, exploring folktales, mythological narratives, contemporary ways of survival and tomorrow's inevitable changes in the great melting glaciers.

Gingger Shankar is a singer, violinist and composer. Her credits include co-composing music for the Passion of the Christ and touring with the Smashing Pumpkins. www.ginggershankar.com

Dave Liang is the creator of The Shanghai Restoration Project, a music group that blends Chinese culture with hip-hop and electronica. shanghairestorationproject.com/bio.html

Mridu Chandra is a filmmaker and a producer of award-winning independent films, including Brother Outsider, Let The Church Say Amen and The Canal Street Madam. www.mriduchandra.com/

ARTWORKS
On exhibit January 20 – May 19, 2012, except for the limited engagement of Evolution (Megaplex) during the Festival, January 20-28, 2012.

ABACUS
Artist: Paul Abacus,Early Morning Opera ,Lars Jan (U.S.A.)
Originally Commissioned by The Experimental Media & Performing Arts Center2010, Residue of Multimedia Performance

Riding the wave of TED talk fanaticism and armed with the latest wizardry in data visualization, the visionary/prophet/madman/cult icon Paul Abacus comes to Sundance to preach visions of a world without national borders.  ABACUS delivers a master class in persuasion for the Screen Age that promises to usher civilization into a new era.

Paul Abacus is the St. Teresa of The Screen Age, perforated by pixels. Since getting booted from Oxford, Paul has spent meaningful time as a park ranger and public speaker on the future of borders.  www.VisualAnimals.com

Lars Jan is the artistic director of Early Morning Opera, an art lab specializing in live, cinematic performance. His work has been supported by The Whitney Museum, EMPAC, Princeton Atelier, Sherwood Award, MacDowell Colony, CalArts, Center for Cultural Innovation, & MAPP. Lars is a 2011 TEDGlobal Fellow. www.EarlyMorningOpera.com

Along the Way
Artist: Hank Willis Thomas (U.S.A.)
2008, Video Mosaic
Along The Way is a 15-minute video mosaic that  was originally a public art commission for Oakland International Airport and will remain on view in the airport until 2010. Along The Way was created by the Cause Collective which consists of Bayeté Ross Smith, Hank Willis Thomas, Ryan Alexiev, Jessica Ingram and Jorge Sanchez. This video mosaic includes over 1,500 video portraits of residents of Oakland California and the surrounding area.
Hank Willis Thomas is a photo-conceptual and new media artist who exhibits internationally including Sundance New Frontier. His Collaborative and public art projects focus on representing the complexity and diversity of human experience.

Bear 71
Artists: Jeremy Mendes and Leanne Allison (Canada)
Produced by Loc Dao and Rob McLaughlin at the National Film Board of Canada 
Ongoing, Multiuser Interactive Experience
Jeremy Mendes and Leanne Allison’s poignant interactive documentary about a bear in the Canadian Rockies illuminates the way humans engage with wildlife in the age of networks, satellites and digital surveillance. Audiences from around the world can use their smartphones to roam an interactive forest environment rich with bears, cougars, sheep, deer and people as they follow an emotional story of a grizzly bear tagged and monitored by Banff National Park rangers. http://bear71.nfb.ca

Jeremy Mendes is a Vancouver based artist with 10 years experience in interactive production including the award winning cbcradio3.com.

Leanne Allison is a documentary filmmaker who has won environmental and Gemini awards for her film Being Caribou.

Loc Dao and Rob McLaughlin formed the interactive team at the NFB and co-created CBC Radio 3. Loc currently heads up the team and oversees all English interactive works at the NFB. The NFB's recent interactive work includes Waterlife.nfb.ca, Pinepoint.nfb.ca, Testtube.nfb.ca and Outmywindow.nfb.ca which have garnered over 20 awards, including four Webby, one Digital Emmy, three Communications Arts and one Gemini Awards.

Evolution (Megaplex)
Limited Engagement: January 20 – January 28, 2012
Artist: Marco Brambilla (U.S.A.)
2010, 3-D Media Installation,
In this magnificent, large-scale, stereoscopic, 3-D video collage, media artist Marco Brambilla unscrolls a mural depicting the history of humankind. Brambilla illustrates sweeping movements of world conflict by seamlessly remixing hundreds of individual channels of looped video gathered from Hollywood’s blockbuster films. Evolution (Megaplex) whimsically reframes humanity’s great moments while casting a satirical look at the bombast of the big-budget “epic.”

Marco Brambilla is a Milan-born, New York-based video artist whose work has been exhibited in major private and public collections including the Guggenheim Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the New Museum of Contemporary Art. In May 2011, Brambilla’s first major retrospective of his video installation work opened at the Santa Monica Museum of Art. www.marcobrambilla.com

Video can be viewed online at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WVGXU_7gF8

Freedom
Artists: Eva & Franco Mattes a.k.a. 0100101110101101.ORG (U.S.A., Italy)
2010, Online Performance

In Freedom, a performance artwork, Eva Mattes tries to convince the other players to save her because she is trying to make artwork.  Visually located in a small desert village overrun with terrorists, the game/performance plays on the violence so common in modern warfare video games and plays on the psychological desire to engage in war against terrorists.  However, despite her pleas, the result is Eva being endlessly abused and killed.
Eva and Franco Mattes are the artist-provocateurs behind the website 0100101110101101.org. Since 1994 they have lived a nomadic life throughout Europe and the U.S. Renowned for their masterful subversions of public media, their work is precariously balanced on the edge of legal, ethical and social boundaries. Their art has been featured at the Venice Biennale, the Walker Art Center, Manifesta, the New Museum, Collection Lambert, PS1, Performa and Santa Fe Biennial. www.0100101110101101.org/blog/

Hunger in Los Angeles
Artist: Nonny de la Peña (U.S.A.)
2011, Immersive Game Environment

Former Newsweek correspondent Nonny de la Peña is developing a groundbreaking brand of journalism that offers a fully immersive experience into news reporting. Focused on calling attention to the growing issue of hunger in the United States, Hunger in Los Angeles recreates an eyewitness account of a crisis on a food-bank line at the First Unitarian Church. De la Peña uses game-development tools, Unity 3-D, a body-tracking system and a head-mounted goggle display, along with live audio she collected during the incident, to construct a fully immersive, simulated world where audiences can suit up, walk around and interact with other characters in the scene.

This project was commissioned by USC Annenberg School of Communications & Journalism in conjunction with MxR Lab, a joint lab between USC's Institute for Creative Technologies and The School of Cinematic Arts.

Nonny de la Peña is a pioneer in the area of immersive journalism, a novel way to utilize gaming platforms and virtual environments to convey first person experience and presence in news and documentaries. A graduate of Harvard University, she is an award-winning documentary filmmaker with twenty years of journalism experience. De la Peña is also behind Stroome.com, an award-winning online collaborative video editing platform with users in 126 countries. www.immersivejournalism.com

My Generation
Artists: Eva & Franco Mattes a.k.a. 0100101110101101.ORG (U.S.A., Italy)
2010, Media Sculpture

Hilarious and embarrassingly relevant, My Generation recreates the epic biomechanical failure that players experience when technology breaks down during a computer game and their expectations of gratification are frustrated. An annihilated computer is strewn across the floor but still burns brightly with clips of young people freaking out because technical problems prevent them from playing their favorite computer games. My Generation is a revealing reminder of how much human beings have come to depend on the media technology that surrounds them.

Eva and Franco Mattes are the artist-provocateurs behind the website 0100101110101101.org. Since 1994 they have lived a nomadic life throughout Europe and the US. Renowned for their masterful subversions of public media, their work is precariously balanced on the edge of legal, ethical and social boundaries. Their art has been featured at the Venice Biennale, the Walker Art Center, Manifesta, the New Museum, Collection Lambert, PS1, Performa and Santa Fe Biennial. www.0100101110101101.org/blog/

No Fun
Artists: Eva & Franco Mattes a.k.a. 0100101110101101.ORG (U.S.A., Italy)
2010, Online Performance

Reminiscent of chat-roulette, the reactions of rotating spectators to the apparent suicide of a man hanging from a rope are recorded in No Fun.  However, the longer the viewer watches the more implicated he or she is in the act of voyeurism.  The action is purported to be in real time with a video of the viewer displayed on the screen within suicide’s room also further implicating their presence and their voyeurism.  Some spectators scream while others are skeptical and debate the “reality” of the scene, echoing the ‘reality’ of videos found on the internet on sites such as YouTube.
Eva and Franco Mattes are the artist-provocateurs behind the website 0100101110101101.org. Since 1994 they have lived a nomadic life throughout Europe and the US. Renowned for their masterful subversions of public media, their work is precariously balanced on the edge of legal, ethical and social boundaries. Their art has been featured at the Venice Biennale, the Walker Art Center, Manifesta, the New Museum, Collection Lambert, PS1, Performa and Santa Fe Biennial. www.0100101110101101.org/blog/

Question Bridge: Black Males
Artists: Hank Willis Thomas & Chris Johnson in collaboration with Bayeté Ross Smith & Kamal Sinclair (U.S.A.)
2011, Media Sculpture, Online Social Network, Geolocative Hotspots

Dissolving the distinction between subject, audience and author, this visionary transmedia project uses new media technology to create a uniquely vulnerable and intimate dialogue among black men nationwide, initiating a new kind of social network. In Question Bridge: Black Males, black men ask questions that are answered by other men who may live thousands of miles away. The footage of these questions and answers are evocatively presented in various ways, ranging from beautiful sculptural huddles that audiences can enter, to Web forums and geolocative hotspots across the country.
www.questionbridge.com

Hank Willis Thomas is a photo-conceptual and new media artist who exhibits internationally including Sundance New Frontier. His Collaborative and public art projects focus on representing the complexity and diversity of human experience.

Chris Johnson is a Professor of Photography at CCA, originator of Question Bridge (1996), co-producer/director of The Roof is on Fire, and author of The Practical Zone System.

Bayeté Ross Smith is a visual artist who exhibits internationally including the Sundance Film Festival, the Oakland Museum of California, the Goethe Institute, Rush Arts Gallery, The Zacheta National Gallery of Art and the San Francisco Arts Commission. His work often involves public and community engagement as an integral element.
Kamal Sinclair is a producer/director of integrated-reality art experiences with NYU Tisch BFA and GSU MBA. Former STOMP cast member and Universal Arts artistic director.

Radical Games Against the Tyranny of Entertainment
Artist: Molleindustria  (U.S.A.)
2003-2012, Immersive Game Environment
Molleindustria’s splendidly subversive indie games exploit players’ urge to win to provoke a complicated, adrenaline-infused empathy with shameless, profit-mongering protagonists. Spread throughout the lounges of New Frontier, Radical Games against the Tyranny of Entertainment take on Big Oil, fast food, the worlds of pornography and cell phones, the military, and the economy of free ideas.

Among the works included:

Unmanned (2012): Pilot an unmanned aerial vehicle (drone) over a war zone while conversing with your spouse in the suburbs.

Oligarchy (2008): Become king of the petroleum era: explore and drill around the world, corrupt politicians, stop alternative energy, and increase oil addiction. Have fun before natural resources run out.

McDonald’s Video Game (2006): Create pastures, lead animals to slaughter, learn restaurant management and branding, and discover the secrets behind the success of one of the biggest companies in the world.

Free Culture (2008): Learn about the struggle between free culture and copyright.

Phone Story (2011): Get in touch with the dark side of your favorite smartphone with this educational game recently banned from the App Store.

Games can be played online at:

http://www.molleindustria.org/en/home

Molleindustria [soft industry/soft factory] is a project of reappropriation of video games, a call for the radicalization of popular culture, an independent game developer. They produce homeopathic remedies to the idiocy of mainstream entertainment in the form of free, short-form, online games. Our products range from satirical business simulations to meditations on labor and alienation. Their latest game Unmanned, a collaboration with writer and director Jim Munroe, will premiere at Sundance. Molleindustria obtained media coverage and critical acclaim while hopping between digital art, academia, game design, media activism and internet folk art. www.molleindustria.org/

Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (formerly Salt Lake Art Center) was recognized as Best Museum in the State of Utah for 2011.  Founded in 1931 and now located in the heart of Salt Lake City, UMOCA exhibits groundbreaking work by leading local and international artists. Recent exhibitions include Fallen Fruit of Utah, a state-wide collaboration with museums and individuals about the role of fruit in Utah’s history, led by artist collective Fallen Fruit; current exhibitions include Kim Schoenstadt, winner of the 2011 Catherine Doctorow Prize for Contemporary Painting; Doublespeak, codes and entendres by contemporary women artists.  Upcoming exhibitions include Sundance Film Festival New Frontier, and also Play Me I’m Yours, inviting the people of Salt Lake to show off their piano skills on street corners all over Salt Lake.  UMOCA rounds out its offerings with a lively mix of award-winning educational programs, film screenings, panel discussions, and events celebrating Salt Lake’s vibrant local art scene. UMOCA is located at 20 S. West Temple, just off the intersection with South Temple. Admission is free year-round. Business hours are Tuesday-Thursday: 11 am-6 pm; Friday: 11 am-9 pm; Saturday: 11 am-6 pm; closed Sunday and Monday. For more information call (801) 328-4201 or visit www.utahmoca.org.

The Sundance Film Festival
A program of the non-profit Sundance Institute, the Festival has introduced global audiences to some of the most ground-breaking films of the past two decades, including sex, lies, and videotape, Maria Full of Grace, The Cove, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, An Inconvenient Truth, Precious, Trouble the Water, and Napoleon Dynamite, and through its New Frontier initiative, has showcased the cinematic works of media artists including Isaac Julien, Doug Aitken, Pierre Huyghe, Jennifer Steinkamp, and Matthew Barney. The 2012 Sundance Film Festival sponsors include: Presenting Sponsors — Entertainment Weekly, HP, Acura, Sundance Channel and Chase SapphireSM; Leadership Sponsors — Adobe Systems Incorporated, Bing™, Canon, DIRECTV, Focus Forward, a partnership between GE and CINELAN, Southwest Airlines, Sprint and Yahoo!; Sustaining Sponsors — Bertolli® Frozen Meal Soups, FilterForGood®, a partnership between Brita® and Nalgene®, Grey Goose® Vodka, Hilton HHonors and Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts, L'Oréal Paris, Stella Artois®, Timberland, Time Warner Inc. and YouTubeTM. Sundance Institute recognizes critical support from the Utah Governor's Office of Economic Development, and the State of Utah as Festival Host State. The support of these organizations will defray costs associated with the 10-day Festival and the nonprofit Sundance Institute's year-round programs for independent film and theatre artists. www.sundance.org/festival

Sundance Institute
Sundance Institute is a global nonprofit organization founded by Robert Redford in 1981. Through its artistic development programs for directors, screenwriters, producers, composers and playwrights, the Institute seeks to discover and support independent film and theatre artists from the United States and around the world, and to introduce audiences to their new work. The Institute promotes independent storytelling to inform, inspire, and unite diverse populations around the globe. Internationally recognized for its annual Sundance Film Festival, Sundance Institute has nurtured such projects as Born into Brothels, Trouble the Water, Son of Babylon, Amreeka, An Inconvenient Truth, Spring Awakening, I Am My Own Wife, Light in the Piazza and Angels in America. Join Sundance Institute on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.


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Emily Brunt
Director of Communications, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art
801.328.4201 x115 | m: 801.232.7362 | emily.brunt@utahmoca.org  | www.utahmoca.org