Between Barrios: Rene Francis & the Art of Social Interaction
Rene Francisco – 2008
Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre presents a free weekend of performance, video and community action with the internationally acclaimed Cuban artist Rene Francisco Rodriguez.
By hosting Rene Francisco, Modern Fuel facilitates the translocal connection of Kingston to Cuba, via the cities and citizens participating in the Visible City network.
Events include a performance and artist talk entitled On Art and Politics since 89 on Saturday Sept 27, 4pm at the ARTEL (205 Sydenham Street) and will feature artists Rene Francisco, Johanna Householder, Clive Robertson, Rainer Simon and the ghost of Joseph Beuys. This event will be followed by a reception @ 6pm @ the ARTEL. On Sunday, September 28 8pm @ FRILL Community Garden (38 Charles Street) Modern Fuel is also hosting an outdoor screening of Rene Francisco’s award-winning trilogy of new video works concerning art and community.
These two events are part of a larger program entitled “A Week of Intercultural Exchange in Film and Art” running from September 24-September 30 and featuring the artist Rainer Simon as well as Rene Francisco. This larger event is hosted in partnership by Queen’s University and Modern Fuel Artist Run Centre and it is sponsored by the Canada Council for the Arts; the Ontario Arts Council; DEFA Film Library; Goethe Institute; Queen’s University: George Taylor Richardson Memorial Fund; Office of the V-P Academic; Principal’s Development Fund; German Department; Department of Film and Media; Spanish and Italian Department; Union Gallery; and SNID.
About the Artist
Rene Francisco
Rene Francisco is an internationally recognized contemporary Cuban artist and professor who undertakes group and community-based projects and social action projects with projects of ‘social insertion’, the primary vehicle in René’s work since 1990. He works across different media to consistently challenge the boundaries between art and everyday life, and explore the personal and social contexts of artistic production of artistic production. In hosting Rene, Modern Fuel and Kingston contribute to the Visible City Project (www.visiblecity.ca) which investigates how art practices might be used to educate and transform the experience of urban dwelling and planning in light of the resulting changes of globalization.