Méandres et Média: les trajets distincts de John Sanborn

à Bourges, Novembre 2016

John Sanborn in Bourges, November 2016

Key figure of the Second Wave of American video artists that included Bill Viola, Gary Hill, Dara Birnbaum and Tony Ourlser, John Sanborn’s trajectory moved through contemporary art, television, and the advent of the digital revolution.

The Objective

The group Bandits Mages, in Bourges, France, presents international media art featuring cutting edge works from artists who speak to significant modern issues, through workshops, lectures and screenings – bringing the strongest ideas and attracting audiences from France and abroad. The works are experimental, controversial, conceptual and political and are enjoyed within a climate of generosity shared by the artists, the festival and the audience.

In November 2016 we are mounting an exhibition of the American media artist JOHN SANBORN, whose career spans decades, from the 1970’s to today. His important and pioneering works have influenced a generation of artists and we are focusing on his career with a retrospective that will include early New York works, key collaborations with composers and choreographers, and works made since he relocated to California in the early nineties, on the cusp of a non-lnear world.

A Major Exhibition

In conjunction with the retrospective at the "Rencontres Bandits-Mages" we are planning to showcase media installations by JOHN SANBORN placed in historic locations around Bourges. Each work is designed to complement the historical significance of this city.

The works are operatic; some have been shown in international venues, notably Berlin and Bangkok (where the Bangkok Art and Culture center welcomed thousands of visitors to a large show of his recent installations). Two works will be created for this exhibition and will premiere in Bourges. To do this we need your help.

This exhibition is scheduled to open from end of november to end of december.

Who are we?

Bandits-Mages is an organisation committed to offering a transmission platform for residencies, production, experimentation, research and dissemination within a wide contemporary media sphere that includes video, cinema, sound as well as digital and electronic objects. Possibilities that confer a fluide and modular identity to Bandits-Mages, and allow for thought and concept to find its marks in the works of those using the tools our structure provides. We are driven to support important issues, including queer practices as well as the relationship between human and non-human.

Méandres et Média (A Tale of Two Cities)