Two Reasons to Head North

Not to Thunder Bay or anything, just up to York University. Art lovers can check out Governor General Award winning video artist Istvan Kantor at the Art Gallery of York University. Controversial is the word thrown around when describing Kantor’s work. His regularly uses blood in his work and has been kicked out and had a restraining order placed on him by the National Gallery of Canada. Interestingly his works are now in the National Gallery’s collection. If Kantor’s work piques your interest stick around for a panel discussion on his work, Philip Monk (AGYU director and curator of the Kantor’s show Machinery Execution) will moderate and try to shed some light on Kantor's oft-times dense pieces. And if you want to come prepared check out Timothy Comeau’s detailed post on Kantor and the AGYU show here.

Something a little less theoretical but equally revolutionary is Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein’s documentary the Take. The lefty power couple went down to Argentina during the height of the 2001 economic crisis and came back with this award winning doc about how a group of factory workers managed to struggle and claim their factories from the hands of owners who had left them unemployed and without a means to support themselves. The film has been getting ecstatic reviews and even snagged an award from the American Film Institute Festival. There’ll be a free screening of the film and Lewis will also be chatting after the screening, so come early and have your questions ready.