ISTVAN KANTOR
ISTVAN KANTOR
RE: INVASION - Recent Crimes and Punishments
Monuments / Plunderworks / Mash-Media / Shinyism / Lebensraum / Subvertainment
Curated by Paul Campbell
Sept 9 – Oct 9, 2010
Opening reception/performance Thursday, Sept 9, 7 - 11pm
Performance and media-artist Istvan Kantor invades the premises of SMASH and turns the junkyard size vintage furniture store, located in the heart of the Junction, into his own Neoist (s)mash-up art headquarters. The industrial store-set is a perfect drill-ground for Kantor’s hyper-audacious strategy, techno-cinematic vision and his conflicting taste for mayhem. The show will open with a new performance, designed and created for this occasion, involving members of Istvan Kantor’s robo-zombie MachineSexActionGroup.
For the Junction Arts Festival Kantor extends his installation/performance to the street with a monumental construction of a barricade made of hundreds of old file cabinets in front of SMASH on Saturday, sept 11. Kantor will also actively engage himself with other projects at different sites of the festival, such as a Neoist Brainwash Station and a speed-drawing blitzkunst-action. He will be available to meet festival visitors for informal conversations throughout the JAF event.
Also known as Monty Cantsin, the open-pop-star, Kantor appropriated the trappings and gimmicks of the historical avant-garde, including the manifesto-style propaganda language, and integrated everything in an all-inclusive concept, Neoism.
Istvan Kantor is a recepient of the Governor General's Award for Visual and Media Arts (2004). Kantor was born in Budapest where he studied medical science. In 1976 he defected to Paris and from there he immigrated to Montreal. He also lived in Portland, New York, Berlin and presently is a resident of Toronto where his three children, Jericho, Babylon and Nineveh were born in the 90’s.
His main subjects are the decay of technology and the struggle of the individual in technological society. His work has been described by the media as intellectually rebellious, anti-authoritarian, as well as technically innovative and highly experimental. He likes to break things and set things on fire. He uses conflict and crisis to present his cause, often placing himself in the center of danger and uncertainty. His radically changing creative ambitions are always related to his living environment and social situation.