New Sans façon website

We are delighted to announce the launch of the new Sans façon website!

We hope you like the new layout and please watch there for new projects, updates, and news. We will discontinue posting to our blogger site, but will keep it as a record of our past.

Many thanks and best wishes,
Sans façon

A Walk at the Edge of the World

Award-winning show, A Walk at the Edge of the World, is on tour again this May.

“A carefully constructed dramatic affirmation of the transcendental power of putting one foot in front of the other” The Herald

Text by Nicholas Bone
Design by Sans façon
Performed by Ian Cameron
                                
“I began walking on May 24th 2001.” A man invites the audience to come on a walk with him. When they reach their destination, he talks about walks he has taken, showing images of places he has visited.  Audience and performer find themselves led on another journey, as the hidden secrets of the landscape and the constantly shifting border between land and sea remind us that the past is always with us, whether we realise it or not.
Created in collaboration with the international environmental arts practice Sans façon, this award-winning production from Magnetic North is a reflection on the act of walking, exploring memory, place and the state of mind created when we walk.

For touring dates and reviews go to Magnetic North.

Originally produced in association with Mull Theatre   

Call for Ideas - Lost Spaces Competition

Here is a really interesting competition coming up:

Design Talks Institute (d.talks), a design advocacy organization, in collaboration with WATERSHED+, a part of the City of Calgary’s Utilities & Environmental Protection Public Art program, aim to address a particular challenge of public space--what to do with seemingly remnant pieces of public property.

The Lost Spaces design competition asks professionals and students in the fields of art, architecture, design, and engineering to respond to the diverse challenges of design, social sustainability, and low impact design improvements. The ideas competition aims to explore alternatives improving the use, public realm and ecological value of a lost space. 

A ‘lost space’ is any space that remains underutilized within our urban environment. They might be leftover pieces, a ghost of the planning past. Lost spaces are part of the public realm, rarely designed to function with both social and environmental benefit to the city.
You may consider a lost space as a passageway, a roundabout, space between two buildings, a highway shoulder, or tenants of the city's history and memory.


Dates:
January 5th, 2015 - Registration opens
March 20th, 2015 - Registration and questions deadline
March 30th, 2015 - Submission due (23:59 MDT)
April 29th, 2015 - Winners announced

Awards:1st Prize: $7,500 CAD
Five field prizes: $3,000 CAD each  Fields include: Water Services, Roads and Transportation, Parks, Planning, and Public Art.
shortlist renumeration fee (up to six awarded): $1,000 CAD each

The JurySusan Szenasy, Editor in Chief, Metropolis Magazine
Shane Coen, Principal, Coen + Partners Landscape Architecture
Pierre Thibault, Principal, Atelier Pierre Thibault Architecture
Shauna Thompson, Curator, The Esker Foundation
Diana Sherlock, Independent Curator

produced by: d.talks
supported by: WATERSHED+ and The City of Calgary
more info: http://www.dtalks.org/call-for-ideas
to register: hello@dtalks.org

Pantone Perfect

Pantone Perfect, one of two projects we developed for the 2014 Urban Lights Ruhr in Hamm Germany, has been added to our website.

With the assistance of the the Musée d'histoire des sciences de Genèves, Switzerland, we recorded the exact Pantone value of each of the original 52 hues from Saussure's Cyanometre from 1787, and faithfully reproduced them in dry colour pigments. Each hour through the duration of the project, we followed Saussure's rigourous but ultimately futile attempt to measure precisely and reproduce the blueness of the sky. 

For more information on the project please click here.

Views of the West Coast of Scotland

In spring of 2014 the Glasgow School of Art suffered a fire that destroyed the famous Mackintosh Library and all its content. Cristine Garriga, a Master student from Glasgow School of Art, has responded to the fire with a video work called My Bookcase, where through filmed interviews with artists who had books held in the original collection, she is helping to reconstruct the Mackintosh library with stories regarding their books and reconstituting the collection.

Sans façon's contribution to the Library is 'Views of the West Coast of Scotland' which was made while in residency at Cove Park, in 2001. The publication was in collaboration with writer John Calcutt.

For more information about Cristine's project and to see her interview with Tristan click here.

 Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty

Avenue Magazines Top 40 under 40

Many thanks to Calgary's Avenue Magazine for making us one of their Top 40 Under 40 for 2014! We couldn't have done it without the exceptional people who help make WATERSHED+ possible.

Photo credit: Erin Brooke Burns

To read the Avenue Magazine interview with Tristan Surtees and Charles Blanc; click here

A Walk at the Edge of the World

We have just be notified that A Walk at the Edge of the World received a third place award from the Scottish Arts Club, in the best new Scottish drama performance category at the Fringe the judges said "The Strength and sheer power of drama are such that, as an art form, it continues to evolve and, with this wonderful "performance piece", Magnetic North has expanded the boundaries and taken us to a newly-crafted "edge"

The ceremony took place Sunday 24 August at the Arts Club, sadly we weren't able make it in person, but were there in spirit.

Thanks also to Total Theatre for their wonderful review of A Walk at the Edge of the World!

Another article just posted on the Pebblesshire News site 'Walk reveals hidden secrets'

You Are Here - Glasgow 2014

The commonwealth games have wrapped and You Are Here is no longer present in the skyline of Glasgow. We are very grateful to have had such a great team who made it possible. Here are a few images of the Merchant City during the games.

Cacher pour mieux montrer

Follow the link below to hear an interesting conversation on CBC Saskatoon with Janet Zweig, Jury member for American’s for the Arts', Public Art Year in Review, about our project Cacher pour mieux montrer (Hide to show better) which received recognition as one of the top public art projects in North America in 2013.

CBC RADIO LINK

A Walk at the Edge of the World

This week, the play we developed with Magnetic North Director Nicholas Bone and Actor Ian Cameron was selected By the Scotsman critics as one of the 30 highlights of the 2014 Edinburgh Fringe, if you are in Edinburgh in August, you can catch it at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.

You Are Here - Glasgow 2014

You are here has been commissioned for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

You are here playfully references the red arrow found on maps to identify your location, first shown at National Waterfront Museum in Swansea, You are here will now be in the heart of Glasgow, hovering over the cultural hub in the Merchant City for the duration of the Games and the Merchant City Festival.

Critical Theory Book Club

We are co-hosting Andrea Williamson’s critical theory book club tonight, this will be the second of three. Looking at site-specific Art, our second pick is an excerpt titled 'Sitings of Public Art: Integration Versus Intervention' found in 'One Place after Another' written by Miwon Kwon.
If you’re interested you can sign up here, or if your not in Calgary and would like to read along with us, we’ll keep the blog up to date with the next book selected.

Public Art Network - Year In Review

We’ve just received confirmation that our piece Cacher pour mieux montrer (Hide to show better), commissioned by the City of Saskatoon's Placemaker Program, has been recognized by the Americans for the Arts and selected for the Public Art Network - 2014 Year in Review, along with two of our WATERSHED+ projects.

Americans for the Arts recognizes outstanding public art projects in North America each year. This year PAN received 345 applications from public art programs and artists. A total of 37 projects were selected from the open call process. We feel very honoured to be recognized by the Americans for the Arts.

CREATIVE CITY SUMMIT

Join us for the Creative City Network of Canada Summit in Hamilton this week! We will be participating as both keynote speakers and in the Peer-to-Peer Presentations!

For more information click here.

VIDEO UPDATE

We are working on a series of videos to share the innovative working process of WATERSHED+. For this first video city managers and engineers of this City of Calgary Business Unit talk about the ground-level integration of professional contemporary artists in their day-to-day working process:

A Walk at the Edge of the World

A Walk at the Edge of the World is touring again this summer. We worked on this last year with director Nicholas Bone and performer Ian Cameron. More information to come!


A Walk at the Edge of the World - trailer from Magnetic North on Vimeo.

Fire Hydrant Fountains

The weather must be getting warmer because the testing of the fire hydrant fountains has started! We will be launching the first of the season at the Calgary International Children’s Festival happening from the 21st to 24th of May. Watch for the fountains throughout the summer as they will be installed to provide drinkable water at festivals and special events.

The Distance Between Us

The Distance Between Us will be in the next Cahiers intempestifs: Des hommes de caractères, Chronicling the life and work of the great men in Typography. The Cahiers are beautiful publications and we are delighted to be included in this edition. The Cahiers Intempestifs are published in french in limited additions, they can be ordered here - we will be sure to re post once it’s published.

CREATIVE CITY SUMMIT, HAMILTON 2014

Just confirmed we are Keynote Speakers for Creative City Network of Canada Summit in Hamilton, Ontario from June 11-13 and also taking part in the Public Art Round Table and panel discussions.  We are delighted to be invited and hope to see you there!

Critical Theory Book Club

Andrea Williamson has kindly invited us to co-host her critical theory book club for the next three events looking at Public Art, our first pick is an essay titled Space, Place, and Site in Critical Spatial Arts Practice by Jane Rendell found in The Practice of Public Art; Edited by Cameron Cartiere and Shelly Willis. If you’re interested you can sign up here, or if your not in Calgary and would like to read along with us, we’ll keep the blog up to date with the latest books selected.