art + objets d'arts + photography

Santiago & Valparaiso, Chile | Photography Workshop | November 1-7, 2013

Hosted by Guy Berube, Whitney Lewis-Smith, Julie Hodgson & Felipe Bracelis, with many guest artists.

In association with the School of Photographic Arts: Ottawa

Duration of the Trip: 7 days

Duration of the Workshop: 5 days + 2 days of independent shooting and exploration of Santiago.

Cost $795 + HST (does not include airfare & hotel)

Santiago Press Release –

Have you ever flown across the world for art? Have you ever been a VIP at an international travelling exhibition? Visited the private studios of international artists? Been on a rooftop at a former crematorium between mountains and palm trees while studying nude models? Would you like to?

LPM Gallery & SPAO (School of Photographic Arts: Ottawa) is currently accepting participants for an exclusive workshop located in Santiago, Chile. This venture has risen out of the success and praise of LPM Gallery’s recent New York City based workshop ‘New York’s Photographic Underbelly: A Survivor’s Guide’ (May 13-17, 2013). With its rapidly growing support, this workshop initiative will continue to expand across borders, sites, and spaces all over the world.

The opportunity for participation is not limited to Ottawa + area residents. The call out is international, and welcomes people of all levels of membership and interests within the arts. No matter where you live or what you do, you can be apart of the experience. The key is to meet us there.

As we have learned through the New York City trip, the workshop experience is largely centered on the idea of stepping outside of oneself. To be sure, the Santiago workshop will be neither didactic nor, in any traditional sense, “academic”. In our daily lives, the eye and the body are trained too often to accept and expect normalcy.

This experience is about letting go, about meeting strangers, making new relationships, all in the spirit of art. As such, the Santiago workshop will work on the concept of extending vision across borders and cultures. It is true that in a world composed of multitudes, experiences of exchange and moments of chance prove most valuable.

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This workshop, hosted by gallery owner and curator Guy Berube, is a unique experience to gain a behind the scenes look at the emerging art scene in Santiago, Chile, and will be in conjunction with the exhibition “YESSR 6” held at the cultural centre LA PERRERA (The dog pound) (http://www.perrerarte.cl/wp/). About a century ago, La Perrera’s building was the city’s crematorium; during the 1950s it became the city’s dog pound. In the mid 1990s Antonio Becerro, a Chilean artist, recovered the building and founded the cultural center. For almost a decade this unusual and dynamic space has been the venue for many art shows, independent film initiatives, performance festivals.

Beginning November 1, 2013, participants will receive an introduction to the exhibition’s organizational and curatorial team, including curator Guy Berube, and co-curator Felipe Alejandro Bracelis Santana. Felipe is a young up-and-coming curator and photographer who is working in conjunction with La Petite Mort for a second time this year. “YESSR 6” is an exhibition that examines how various cultures deal with issues of death and dying. This theme will be explored through the eyes of over 20 South American, Canadian and International artists. This initial meeting with the exhibition’s organizers will be a rare and unique behind the scenes look at the budding artistic scene in South America. Participants will also receive VIP treatment, as special guests to the exhibition’s vernissage that evening.

In the following days, participants will be shown Santiago through the eyes of Felipe – viewing both established galleries, and those spaces that are new to the scene. Julie Hodgson, Development Maven at La Petite Mort, will accompany these tours, providing relevant advice for aspiring artists in regards to future collectors. Guy will accompany participants on tours of numerous art institutions and artist’s studios, revealing Santiago’s hidden treasures. Participants will also be given free time to explore the highlights of the city, photograph on location, and to capture their own experiences and perspectives. Furthermore, participants will have the exciting opportunity to shoot with Felipe in one of his unusual and fascinating on-site locations.

This workshop is an opportunity to gain real world experience from several seasoned professionals in various areas of specialization. It is open to anyone interested in diversifying his or her artistic and photographic outlook – regardless of preferred medium (painters who work from photographic images are also encouraged to join) or skill level – all are welcome.

Julie Hodgson, Development Maven at the LPM Gallery, has been working at La Petite Mort Gallery since July 2010, and started the highly engaging LPM Collectors’ Group in September 2010. The LPM Collectors’ Group meets once a month for behind-the-scenes tours of public and private collections and for presentations by artists, curators, collectors, conservators, arts professionals, and art lovers who talk about art and the practical aspects of acquiring, caring for, and exhibiting an art collection.

Prior to her position at the LPM Gallery, Julie worked at the National Gallery of Canada for 17 years, four as a Curatorial Assistant in the Prints and Drawings Department, and 13 as a Senior Project Manager in Exhibitions Management, where she managed 80 exhibitions from 1997 to 2010.

Julie has also worked at many of Canada’s other cultural institutions including the Portrait Gallery of Canada, the Canadian Centre for Architecture, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the Inuit Art Section at Aboriginal and Northern Affairs Canada, the National Capital Commission, the Owens Art Gallery, and the Confederation Centre Art Gallery.

In March 2012, Julie, who also works with Guy Bérubé on the international exhibitions hosted by the LPM Gallery, accompanied Guy to Buenos Aires, Argentina, to participate in the installation of Flesh Garden, and gave a presentation to collectors in Buenos Aires about the work she does at the LPM Gallery and about Canadian collections.

FELIPE BRACELIS: 
Felipe Bracelis is an artists and curator from Chile, currently living and working in Santiago. His work revolves around digital collage, video installation, drawing and sculpture.  He is also the director of YESSR, an Art Platform that develops travelling shows, fanzines and online publications, supporting new talents for the Latin American Art Scene. Bracelis timeline includes participation in more than a dozen group shows, two solo shows and his personal magazine project, YESSR Magazine, which is currently sold at Tate Modern’s book shop, and independent bookstores in Santiago. His work has been shown in Chile, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia and Canada. His subject matter moves around three specific concepts: Pornographic imagery, landscape and  digital sharpness. He has previously collaborated with LPM as a curator, and his “Hybrid” series are currently available for sale at La Petite Mort Gallery.

WHITNEY LEWIS-SMITH:

The half day seminar, taught by Whitney Lewis-Smith, will involve each member of the class building their own pinhole cameras and loading them with light sensitive darkroom paper.  We will then wander to a few picturesque locations close to the gallery, such as photographing selected nude models, to experiment with composition.  Once everyone has exposed their images we will return to the gallery to develop our paper negatives in the darkroom and discuss.  The negatives created will be digitally inverted to look at during class and a final scanned positive will be sent to each participant following the trip.

For some examples and info on pinhole cameras:

http://thedelightsofseeing.blogspot.ca/2010/10/pinhole-photography-and-camera-obscura.html

http://pinhole-project.com/tag/pinhole-photography-2/

http://www.lomography.com/magazine/lifestyle/2011/04/19/justin-quinnell-the-pinhole-wizard

Whitney Lewis-Smith is a photo based artist who studied at Concordia university and SPAO.  She uses alternative photographic methods to build dream-like still lives, portraits, and the occasional landscape.  Whitney currently lives in Ottawa.

BONUS FEATURE: As a bonus to this workshop, Guy Berube would like to include a critique of the work produced on the trip (upon return), which could potentially lead to a one week exhibit depending on the strength and final result of this photographic excursion.

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Schedule for Workshop at Santiago and Day Trip to Valparaiso, November 1 – 7.

November 1 (Friday).

7pm. – Behind the scenes look at the POST MORTEM Group Exhibit before the opening / private tour by gallery and curators.

8pm: Opening of Post Mortem (8 – 11 pm) at La Perrera. Meet & Greet with the artists, the curators and with the owner of the space, iconic artist Antonio Becerro. Food & drinks for everyone!! Performance art  by Toronto artist ASleks Bartosik ( http://www.aleksbartosik.com )

November 2 (Saturday).
– Visit Santiago & Art institutions of different profiles:
Museum of Fine Arts (www.mnba.cl) and/or Museum of Visual Art (www.mavi.cl) and/or Museum of Contemporary Art EAST(www.mac.uchile.cl) , Options: Farmers’ Market / Flea Market.
November 3 (Sunday).
Visit to main uptown contemporary galleries of the city, spread throughout Santiago.
http://www.dieecke.cl/
http://www.departamento21.cl/
http://www.galeriapready.cl/
http://www.galeriaafa.com/

November 4 (Monday).
 Site seeing & independent day of exploration, inspiration, photography, etc. / More to be announced.

November 5 (Tuesday).
– 11 am noted Canadian photographer Whitney Lewis-Smith, as participant & educator (www.lapetitemortgalery.com/whitney-lewis-smith/) for photo-based workshop, at La Perrera.
Afternoon; nude Shoot on Rooftop of La Perrera, with a live model/s and the direction of Felipe Bracelis, co-curator of group exhibit, director & photographer of noted publication, YESSR Magazine.
– Traditional Chilean lunch served by Sebastian Quezada. (no extra cost)

November 6 (Wednesday).
– 11 am Studio visit  at Jose Pedro Godoy’s Studio (www.josepedrogodoy.cl)
– Visit to the Museum of contemporary Art WEST, The curator of the space, Montserrat Rojas Corradi, will receive us personally.
– Afternoon visit to  Adolfo Bimer’s studio (www.adolfobimer.blogspot.com) which is near La Perrera.

November 7 (Thursday).
-Day trip to Valparaiso. Meet & See the photographic work of noted photographer Cristobal Traslavina. Private tour of Parque Cultural de Valparaiso.