TIFF 2010: A New Museum for Movies
Thom Anderson Get Out of the Car 2010 Film still
All summer, anticipation has been building for the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival—and not just for its perennial celebrity sightings and glitzy red carpet openings. This year’s festival also promises to entice cinephiles and art lovers with an impressive new building, a host of commissioned art projects and an expanded off-site program that meditates on interconnections between film and art.
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TIFF Bell Lightbox rendering by architectural firm KPMB and Norm Li AG+I |
Heralding this shift in focus is the opening of the TIFF Bell Lightbox, a five-storey complex in downtown Toronto that combines public cinemas, gallery space, workshop studios and lounge areas. Designed by KPMB Architects, the building serves as a permanent home for the annual festival and will operate as a fully functioning cinema during the rest of the year, presenting first-run and classic movies. Special events are also on the roster, like noted directors speaking about their favourite films and local bands like Do Make Say Think performing music inspired by a movie of their choice.
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Guy Maddin Hauntings II 2010 Film Still |
Two massive spaces in the Lightbox will also house exhibitions that present moving-image culture alongside contemporary art projects. For the building’s first exhibition, titled “Essential Cinema,” artistic director Noah Cowan has organized a wunderkammer of props, costumes, photographs and scores from films on the Essential 100 list, TIFF’s inventory of the most influential movies of all time. In addition, he’s included contemporary artists’ responses to some of these iconic works. A unique version of Douglas Gordon’s 24 Hour Psycho (subtitled Back and Forth and To and Fro) is visible to pedestrians along the Lightbox’s King Street façade, while newly commissioned installations from Guy Maddin, Atom Egoyan and Barr Gilmore riff on pivotal moments in 20th century cinema as well as the new building’s architecture. By augmenting traditional narrative films with work by contemporary artists, Cowan hopes to bring a new audience to the festival. “There has been an artificial divide between the film and art worlds for some time now,” says Cowan. “We’re trying to bridge that divide by making a case for the role of films in contemporary art and culture.”
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Douglas Gordon 24 Hour Psycho Back and Forth and To and Fro 2008 Installation view |
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