My Chicago for Your Ljubljanica

Friday, October 16, 2009 6:00pm - 7:30pm
The Hideout
1354 w wabansia


Featuring Chicago-based video artist Kirsten Leenaars, poet/MAKE editor Joel Craig, poet Travis Nichols, and filmmaker Dean Rank

$2 suggested donation/ 21 +

http://makemag.com/my-chicago-for-your/

Using their respective mediums, one poet and one visual artist collaborated on a presentation featuring language and imagery, while attempting to harness the nuances of translation. The pieces, which will debut at the Hideout, borrow from the process of translating poetry from one written language to another - a process often involving conversations in a less-familiar language. Work from Gregor Podlogar will also be presented. The groups, Leenaars/Craig and Rank/Nichols, have vastly different styles, while both introspective and entertaining. Expect expert video work and animation, along with writing from three stellar poets. The viewing will begin at 6:30. Slovenian potica bread will be served.

About the participants:

Joel Craig is the author of Shine Tomorrow (Lost Horse, New Poets--Short Books Vol. III, 2009). His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Zoland Annual, A Public Space, The City Visible, and MoonLit, among others. Poetry editor for MAKE: A Chicago Literary Magazine, he also co-founded and curates The Danny's Reading Series in Chicago.

Kirsten Leenaars is a Chicago-based video artist. She holds an MFA in Studio Arts from UIC; an MA Fine Arts, from Piet Zwart Institute and a BFA Fine Arts, from Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam. Solo exhibitions include Contemporary Art Workshop (Chicago), Vega Estates (Chicago), HotelMariaKapel (Hoorn), Bureau voor Hedendaags Avontuur (The Hague). Recent group exhibitions and festivals include: Traveling Tehran Bienale (Berlin, Istanbul, New York), LOOP Festival (Barcelona), De Balie Shorts Festival (Amsterdam), Chicago Filmmakers (Chicago), Art 44/46 (Chicago). She is an adjunct professor at the School of the Art Institute Chicago and teaches at the University of Illinois Chicago. Kirstenleenaars.nl

Travis Nichols is the author Iowa, a forthcoming book of poems from Letter Machine Editions. He lives in Chicago.

Gregor Podlogar holds a degree in Philosophy from the University of Ljubljana. He writes literary criticism and book reviews for the Slovenian National Radio, Vecher newspaper, and Literatura magazine, among others. He has published his poems in various literary magazines in Slovenia and abroad. Aleph Press published his first two collections of poetry, States (1997) and Joy in Vertigo (2002) In co-authorship with another poet Primoz Cucnik and a painter Kariz, an experimental book on New York entitled Ode on Manhattan Ave (2003) came out with Sherpa Press. His readings are often accompanied by musical performances, the most recent ones by abstract electronic music.

Dean Rank is a Chicago-based filmmaker and designer. His 2008 short film HEAD recently screened at the Antimatter Film Fest inVictoria, British Columbia, at Kino Klúbbur ,in 528Reykjavík, Iceland, and will screen at the Big Water Film Fest, Wisconsin in November. Deanrank.com