Art on the Outer Limits
Two works featured at the 2011 Venice Biennale will make their Australian debut alongside large-scale outdoor projections at Frankston's newest arts festival.
Opening Saturday, the inaugural exURBAN SCREENS project will be the largest image arts and new media festival to be held in outer Melbourne.
Curated by Monash University's Dr Vince Dziekan and Matthew Perkins, from the Faculty of Art Design & Architecture, the project will feature more than 20 installations around the theme of (is there) light in outer space?
The main exhibition, including the Biennale works by Sigalit Landau and Ahmed Basiony, will be housed in the Frankston Arts Centre's CUBE 37. There will also be a number of site-specific installations throughout the Frankston CBD, and Ian de Gruchy's enormous Night Beacon projection will light up two sides of the 12-storey Peninsula Centre each evening.
Dr Dziekan said the Basiony work was particularly powerful.
"Basiony was a media artist working in Cairo. The work we're fortunate to be able to exhibit here combines a mixture of performance documentation and video footage taken by the artist during the first two nights of uprisings in Tahrir Square last year," Dr Dziekan said.
"On the third night, Ahmed Basiony was one of the protesters that was killed."
Mr Perkins said the different aspects of the festival explored themes of exurban and suburban dwelling in diverse ways.
"With the big art institutions being placed in urban centres, the exURBAN SCREENS project presents a unique opportunity to engage audiences in varied locations in issues relating to urbanality and its social, political and cultural dynamics." Mr Perkins said.
A number of tours, some hosted by Mr Perkins, will guide visitors around the projections after dark.
Additionally, Dr Dziekan and Mr Perkins have commissioned an augmented reality smartphone app with unique content. It will be available on iPhone and Android platforms prior to the festival opening.
"It will provide the public with an innovative way of navigating the festival," Dr Dziekan said.
exURBAN SCREENS 2012: (is there) Light in Outer Space? will be held in Frankston from 23 June to 7 July. For more information visit the exURBAN SCREENS website.