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View Sundance film, meet artists

By Kari VanDerVeen
February 4, 2008

Here's a way to kick off the weekend: attend the film showing of an artist whose work was shown at this year's Sundance Film Festival and follow that up with great food, art and conversation at a closing party for the "Space or Place" exhibit currently on display at the Flaten Art Museum. It's all happening Feb. 8 at St. Olaf College.

PierceLeightonVideo
A still from Leighton Pierce's film, Number One, which was screened at the Sundance Film Festival and currently is on display at St. Olaf's Flaten Art Museum.
The events start at 3 p.m. at Viking Theater in Buntrock Commons, where Leighton Pierce -- whose 10-minute film, Number One (on view in Flaten Art Museum), was accepted into the Sundance Film Festival -- will present several of his films and videos and provide time for audience questions.

Then move over to the Flaten Art Museum, where a party and discussion about the "Space or Place" exhibit will begin at 5 p.m. Visitors will have the opportunity to meet and talk to the artists, and Celtic music will be provided by Wake-Robin.

The exhibit, which is on display now through Feb. 10, showcases four artists as they explore the differences between space and place, both intimate and immense, through painting, photography and film. In addition to Pierce, the exhibit features the work of photographer Tammy Mercure -- one of the artists featured in Yi-Fu Tuan's book, Place, Art and Self -- and painters Joonja Lee Mornes and Andrew Wykes. Their work, notes Flaten Art Museum Director Jill Ewald, sets up dialogs with the viewer based on perception, thought, memory, imagination, emotion and desire, "while embracing bodily awareness and embodied action."

About Pierce
With more than 60 awards from national and international festivals, Leighton Pierce's work has long been influential in the experimental film and video world. In the realm of the art museum and gallery, his work has been presented at the 2002 Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Centre Pompidou, and the Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art. Retrospectives and programs of his recent work have appeared at The Lincoln Center, The Cinematheque francaise, The Montreal Film Festival, Festival Nemo in Paris, Centre Pompidou and at The Lisbon Biennial of Contemporary Art. Most recently, Pierce has produced video installations that have been exhibited at The Exploratorium in San Francisco, The Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art and as part of several group shows.

About Flaten Art Museum
The Flaten Art Museum is located in the Dittmann Center on the St. Olaf campus. Visitor parking is available in the adjacent lot. The museum is open Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; and Saturdays and Sundays from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Contact Kari VanDerVeen at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.