Acrpost: A Project of the Pacific Association of Artist Run Centres

Event Description

Inspired and creatively distracted by the Summerian myth of the planet Nibiru and the return of its inhabiting Annunaki people, Open Space is activating a community-oriented space exploring the act of hosting. Through a series of Circle Ceremonies and a participatory exhibition, the HomeStay project will launch stories of hosting and revisit the etiquettes of being a guest on the territories of the Coast Salish Nation.

Building on the local practice of hosting international “homestay” students in one’s home while they attend local schools, Open Space is developing a forum to explore this mode of cultural and economic exchange. This custom forms the framework for the Welcome Back Ye Annunaki exhibition. Open Space has also incorporated a public call for submissions of proposals that imagine the scenario of hosting ancient visitors returning to earth after a 3,600 year journey.

Four Circle Ceremonies will invite interested members of the Victoria community to come together with open minds to respectfully address the issues of hosting and being a guest in the context of Victoria, BC in the year 2012.

Kwakwaka'wakw Elder Gerry Ambers will lead all four Circle’s each in collaboration with a guest curator, inviting members of their respective communities to meet and speak their personal truths and share perspectives on hosting and being a guest.

The first Circle will be held on Saturday, June 9, starting at 6pm running until 9pm at Open Space. It will be guided by Tahltan curator Peter Morin’s (Victoria, BC) question “What does it mean to be a guest on traditional territory of Lekwungen people?” Interested members of the community should contact Peter Morin at Open Space to express their interest and share their intent for attending the ceremony.

Subsequent Circles will be lead by Gerry Ambers and co-curated by Zoe Kreye (Vancouver/Berlin) who will also be artist-in-residence this fall at Camosun College, and the organizers of the Welcome Back Ye Annunaki exhibition, Ted Hiebert (Seattle, WA) and Doug Jarvis (Victoria, BC), scheduled for the fall of 2012.

The HomeStay project, with it’s other-worldly intentions, exercises Open Space’s mandate to develop new ways of engaging diverse audiences in life changing and thought-shifting practices around the development, presentation and dissemination of contemporary arts and culture. Please join us in this community engaged action to explore and inhabit what it means to be guests in Victoria, BC, in 2012.

To express your interest please contact Peter Morin at Open Space at 250-383-8833 .