VISA TRAUMA - Gusztav Uto, alone, Toronto

[epistolaris at freemail.hu]

VISA TRAUMA -- Gusztav Uto
September 9, 2003, 7:30 pm
presented by FADO in collaboration with BLANK SLATE
at Implant
58 Wade Ave, Unit 12
PWYC

TORONTO, Canada ... Fado, working in collaboration with Blank
Slate, is
pleased to present a performance, video screening and talk by
Gusztav
Uto, one of Romania's foremost performance artists. This will be
the
final
work in VISA TRAUMA, a series of four actions undertaken by the
artist
during his visit to Canada (previous actions in Chicoutimi,
Montreal and
Quebec City, August 2003).

Gusztav Uto presents performance actions combining political and
poetic impulses that respond to current and local situations.
VISA
TRAUMA comes out of the circumstances under which Uto finds
himself
in Canada. Originally invited to perform as part of SYLVA, a
collective of Transylvanian artists formed for this tour, 
Uto found himself alone after his 5 companions were denied 
visas by the Canadian embassy in Bucharest. Consequently, 
these performances speak to this unexpected
absence of his colleagues and of the difficulties of
communicating across cultural, geographic and administrative 
borders.

After his performance, Uto will show some video documentation of
the ANNART festival in Romania and engage in a discussion with the
audience about how art is valued in Romania vs Canada. 

This event is presented in collaboration with BLANK SLATE, a new
Toronto forum for discussions, critical talks, conferences,
workshops and interdisciplinary events blending together science, 
technology philosophy, politics and art. Fado wishes to acknowledge 
Le Lieu (Quebec) and Richard Martel for arranging Gusztav Uto's 
visit to Canada.

About Gusztav Uto

Gusztav Uto is a performance artist who has been making
performance actions for many years, presenting his work 
throughout Europe, Asia and North America. He appeared 
in Toronto in 1996 as part of Fado's Rencontre Performance 
festival (in collaboration with Le Lieu).
An artist of Hungarian background, he lives in Transylvania 
(Romania). Uto also worked throughout the 1990s as the 
organizer of the ANNART festival, an international outdoor 
performance art festival around a volcanic lake.
During this period it was considered one of the most important
performance meeting places in Eastern Europe, but lack of funds
has made it impossible to produce the festival in recent years.