ELEMENTAL FESTIVAL IS A SITE-SPECIFIC EVENT THAT BRINGS ART IN MANY FORMS - INSTALLATION, MUSIC, AUDIO ART, PERFORMANCE ART, AND WRITING CRAFT - INTO A RURAL, NORTHERN ONTARIO LANDSCAPE.
In my role as AD/ED and lead curator at 4elements Living Arts, I designed and curated the inaugural Elemental Festival in October 2015 and curated the next few years of the festival. During those years it was an event that highlighted my interest in, and 4e’s commitment to curate innovative land-based work in tandem with community-engaged activities in which artists and community members can explore themes related land and arts.
Elemental Festival was a unique multi-day, interdisciplinary, outdoor cultural experience. I wanted to create an exchange between local artists, writers, musicians and community members and visiting creators, to create an opportunity for inquiry, inspiration, and exchange, and build local engagement with critical and contemporary sit-specific practices. Each year I curated the Festival I designed a specific focus with a set of provocations, or questions, and invited artists to respond these questions within a specific, diverse ecosystems on Mnidoo Mnising | Manitoulin Island. Each festival was designed to culminate a year of community engagement around the theme, for instance, one year the focus on walking invited community members and artists to consider the politics, process and practices of walking within colonized, transformed and diverse ecosystems. Visiting artists to the Festival included the highly awarded Marlene Creates whom I’d learned about through my PhD in Geography, and Chris Turnbull whose Footpress I had been following for some time. Other visiting artists to various Festivals included Michael Belmore, Anne-Marie Hadcock, Sean Procyk, and Judy Martin.
Assistance with co-ordination was a team effort, primarily thanks to NOHFC Internship grants, including Patricia Mader, the Cultural and Recreational Programs Assistant (whom I supported to curate the music at one festival and the emerging artists at another), Vanessa Glasby, and a team of summer students.
Photo credits: Emilie Edwards, Sophie Edwards
