CAFKA – Contemporary Art Forum Kitchener and Area is pleased to be teaming up with the Walper Hotel to exhibit eight provocative art installations throughout the hotel. The exhibition will open Thursday, May 2 at 7 PM and run through August 11, 2013.
Since its inception CAFKA has been a fall festival of contemporary art in public spaces. Following SURVIVE. RESIST., CAFKA’s last biennial exhibition, the organization decided to become a biennial spring event and that we would in the future be collaborating closely with our sister festival the Open Ears Festival of Music and Sound. CAFKA @ The Walper Hotel and Between the Ears is our first spring event, our first collaborative program and a hint of things to come.
CAFKA @ The Walper Hotel is a program of contemporary art installations that engage the unique spaces of the historic Walper Hotel in downtown Kitchener. The exhibition consists of sculptural intervention, photography, animation, sound installation, and mixed media installation. The projects presented here, we hope, will engage the Walper’s patrons and the staff and animate the life and history of this busy urban hotel.
Artists featured in CAFKA @ The Walper Hotel will be Laura De Decker (Waterloo, ON), Dave Dyment (Toronto, ON), Manuela Lalic (Montréal, QC), Tor Lukasic-Foss (Hamilton, ON), Ellen Moffat (Saskatoon, SK), Janet Morton (Guelph, ON), Daniel Olson (Montréal, QC), and Stephanie Vegh (Hamilton, ON). CAFKA – Contemporary Art Forum Kitchener and Area is pleased to be teaming up with the Walper Hotel to exhibit eight provocative art installations throughout the hotel. An opening reception for the artists will be held at the Walper Hotel on Thursday, May 2 at 7 PM. The exhibition will run through August 11, 2013. For more details on the artists and the artwork in the exhibition, please go to http://www.cafka.org/exhibitions/cafkaatthewalper.
CAFKA is pleased that this exhibition is also part of another event, Between the Ears co-produced with the Open Ears Festival of Music and Sound, a weekend festival of music and sound art featuring improvisation, mechanical music, live concert music and microperformances, taking place at Kitchener City Hall, the Walper Hotel, and the Registry Theater on May 31 and June 1.
Two of the installations in CAFKA @ The Walper Hotel – Hamilton artist Tor Lukasic-Foss’s Closet of Intimacies: A Shadow Box for a Semi-Private Performance, and Saskatoon artist Ellen Moffat’s pingringtootle – are sound art installations that will be featured during Between the Ears. CAFKA artists Scott Carter (Chicago, IL) Christof Migone are also featured in the May 31 program at the Kitchener City Hall.
Between the Ears will begin at 5 PM on Friday, May 31 when guests will help fold a proud rainbow of boats to fill the reflecting pool in the inaugural Origami Regatta during the performances. The performances will range from the relentless swell and ebb of Jim Tenney’s iconic percussion work to the intimate juxtaposition of tiny bowls, a 25-litre funnel and 20 kilograms of rice in Spill. Also during the performances on King Street between Ontario and Young Streets will be the Kitchener Night Market, running until midnight, featuring local food, artisans and vendors.
CAFKA is a non-profit, artist run organization that is supported by its members and donors. CAFKA @ The Walper Hotel and CAFKA’s participation in Between the Ears is made possible with the support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation, Kitchener-Waterloo Community Foundation – Musagetes Fund, Christie Digital, Region of Waterloo Arts Fund, City of Kitchener, Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund, Ontario Arts Council, and City of Waterloo.