Past Residents
Past Resident2014: Foundation for a Civil Society
Staš Kleindienst
Staš Kleindienst’s work addresses issues of origin, representation, and naturalization of authority. Within this context he is shaping a social fiction, drawn through dystopian image of a social reality that stems from the present-day ideological, economic, and political co-ordinates.
Staš Kleindienst (born 1979, Slovenia) lives and works in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Kleindienst has an MA in Fine Art from the Academy of Fine Art and Design in Ljubljana. His exhibitions include U3-7th Triennial of Contemporary Slovenian Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova (MSUM), Ljubljana; Spaceship Yugoslavia- The Suspension of Time, nGbK, Berlin; Not So Distant Memory, Delaware Center for Contemporary Art; and Buy Your Own Art Experience, AC Institute, New York. In 2014 he won the OHO Group Award, the national visual arts award for young visual artists.
Past Resident2014: Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec
Véronique Leblanc
Véronique Leblanc is a Montreal based curator and writer interested in context-based practices. Her work typically analyses art practices concerned with issues of otherness and democracy in the context of globalization and art endeavours using documentary material to encourage the viewers to reflect critically on their perceptions or beliefs. Leblanc is drawn to artworks that explore the ways in which identity and ideological constructions are presented in the social sphere. Investigating connections between art, ethics and politics, her curatorial practice gives form to an ongoing reflection about the potential of contemporary art for addressing social, political or cultural issues, while also participating in the production of individual and social imaginaries.
Véronique Leblanc has curated shows featuring the work of Artur Żmijewski, Paul Wiersbinski, Dave Ball, Jean-Pierre Aubé, Patrick Beaulieu, Douglas Scholes, Jean-Pierre Gauthier and ATSA, among others. Her essays have been published in ETC Media, Espace Sculpture, Ciel Variable and Canadian Art, as well as numerous exhibition catalogues. She received the Canadian Art Writing Prize in 2011 and participated in the first M&M Curatorial Research Residency Program in Mexico in 2013 (Oboro, Montreal / Laboratorio Arte Alameda, Mexico). Leblanc has an MA in art history from Université du Québec à Montréal, where she now teaches.
Residents from Canada
Past Resident2014: Anonymous
Gianfranco Foschino
Operating between photography, documentary film and video art, Gianfranco Foschino’s work is currently focused on video installations, which evoke “tableaux vivants”, emulating a sort of live photograph. Shooting long sequences from fixed viewpoints he produces scenes with minimal movements, presented on flat screens, and framed as light boxes. Distanced from urban life, he portrays bucolic scenes that seem to occur in parallel time dimensions. The political value of Foschino’s work lies in exploring the singular anachronism of these spaces, and trying to recognize anonymous stories and lost lifestyles.
Gianfranco Foschino was born in 1983 in Santiago de Chile. He graduated in Cinema Studies from UNIACC University (Santiago). In 2010, he had his first exhibition Almost Romantic curated by Christopher Eamon at I-20 Gallery, New York. In 2011, his work was featured at the Latin American pavilion of 54th La Biennale di Venezia. In 2014, he participated as guest artist of the Chilean pavilion MONOLITH CONTROVERSIES at the 14th International Architecture Exhibition, awarded with the Silver Lion prize. He currently lives and works in Santiago de Chile.