REMAI MODERN ANNOUNCES NEW WEB COMMISSION BY RAQS MEDIA COLLECTIVE
Media Release: Friday, June 30, 2017
Remai Modern announces new web commission by Raqs Media Collective
Saskatoon, Canada — Remai Modern is very pleased to announce a new web commission, Passwords for Time Travel, by Raqs Media Collective. The project will be featured on the museum’s website from July 1-31. Remai Modern web commissions are curated by Gregory Burke, Executive Director & CEO, and Sandra Guimarães, Director of Programs & Chief Curator.
Passwords for Time Travel consists of a suite of text and image videos proposing a set of terms that anticipate and rehearse conversations with the near and distant future. Combining the enigma of a spell with the precision of a dictionary entry, these unexpected lexical combinations are presented along with images that elaborate upon the multiple meanings of the texts.
“The members of Raqs Media Collective have an expansive practice, not only as artists but as thinkers, organizers, and curators—most recently of the 2016 Shanghai Biennial,” said Burke. “What makes them so compelling is a sense of rapid, future-oriented ingenuity, which they have described as ‘kinetic contemplation.’ Their work has a palpable energy and curiosity around new forms and experiences, shaped by technology and globalization.”
The Raqs Media Collective project challenges visitors’ expectations through the invention of new words to describe very particular features of the life of our time,” said Guimarães. “The ability to see beyond ourselves depends upon those incursions of the imagination that demand a leap into the unexpected”.
About Raqs Media Collective
The Raqs Media Collective was founded in 1992 by Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula and Shuddhabrata Sengupta. They have been variously described as artists, media practitioners, curators, researchers, editors and catalysts of cultural processes. Their work, which has been exhibited widely in major international spaces, locates them in the intersections of contemporary art, historical enquiry, philosophical speculation, research and theory. The Raqs members are based in New Delhi, India, and remain closely involved with the Sarai program at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, an initiative they co-founded in 2000.
About Remai Modern web commissions
In association with its pre-launch programs, Remai Modern is inviting artists to realize original projects exclusively for online viewing. On the first day of every month, work by a new artist appears on Remai Modern’s homepage. Previous commissions by Ryan Gander, Tammi Campbell, Tanya Lukin Linklater, Thomas Hirschhorn, Taysir Batniji, Pedro Barateiro, Kara Uzelman, Rosa Barba, Amanda Beech, Ellen Moffat, Duane Linklater, and Lynne Marsh remain accessible in the online archive. Through these commissions, the museum considers its website as an extension of its physical space and onsite program. Mobile and experimental, this online gallery allows for direct, personal encounters with art while connecting artists and audiences across the globe.
About Remai Modern
Remai Modern is a new museum of modern and contemporary art coming to life in Saskatoon, a growing city on the vast Canadian Prairies. Scheduled to open October 21, 2017, Remai Modern aims to be a vibrant, imaginative and prescient museum committed to affirming the powerful role that art and artists play in questioning, interpreting and defining the modern era. The building, by eminent Canadian architects KPMB, overlooks the South Saskatchewan River in downtown Saskatoon. Remai Modern is home to the world’s foremost collection of Picasso linocut prints, and aspires to be a leading centre for contemporary Indigenous art programming.
Remai Modern is made possible thanks to contributions from the Government of Canada, the Province of Saskatchewan, the City of Saskatoon, and many private and corporate donors. We are also grateful for program support from SaskCulture, the Saskatchewan Arts Board, SaskTel, Canadian Heritage, and the Canada Council for the Arts.
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