Films4Peace celebrates World Peace Day,
21st September 2013, with a unique global film project
For World Peace Day on 21st September, films4peace, an annual, unique short film commission by PUMA, again explores the subject of peace via
the medium of film. Now in its third
year, the project is curated by Mark Coetzee, ex-Director of the Rubell
Family Collection, supported by PUMA and produced by Shooting People. It
features some of today’s most innovative contemporary artists all of whom are
asked to visually interpret the subject of peace.
These short films are released annually,
on World Peace Day, both physically at cultural and educational venues globally,
and online via websites, blogs and media channels. The films are live screened
at hundreds of cultural venues, from Human Rights Festivals to major museums
public spaces, youth leadership conferences and new media centres, from Dakar,
Senegal to Miami, USA to Kashmir, India - in 2012, screenings spanned across 23
countries.
Justin DeKoszmovszky, PUMAVision Program
Manager, said: “We are proud to produce films4peace with Shooting People
for the third year running. This year we commissioned seven fantastic artists
to again explore and interpret the subject of peace Peace to catalyze
discussion and action, starting -- but not ending -- on World Peace Day. At
PUMA we believe that film can be a powerful medium for change that can
enlighten, educate and engage individuals such as consumers, activists,
investors, voters, employees and leaders on issues critical to all of us.”
This year, 7 acclaimed artists have
been commissioned to create short films around the subject of peace: Rob Carter, Wilmer Wilson IV,
Athi-Patra Ruga, Zanele Moholi, Anthony Goicolea, and Assume Vivid Astro Focus.
Zanele
Moholi
is a multi-award winning, highly provocative and exceedingly in demand South
African photographer. Moholi’s work is mostly about increasing the visibility
of gay and transgender culture
in the black community and she has drawn considerable attention to the practice
of “queericide” – people who are killed via gender related hate crimes.
Fellow South African Athi‐Patra Ruga is fast becoming an exciting rising star in performance
art. Ruga himself dresses up in a
spectacular array of costumes, inserting himself, or rather the characters he
is playing, into challenging situations. He pulls together film, fashion and
photography to make thought provoking, striking pieces relating to cultural
identity as a hybrid construct.
23 year
old Wilmer Wilson (Washington, USA) is a recent photography graduate whose card was marked when
the prestigious Conner Contemporary gallery singled him out as one to watch and
invited him to debut his challenging first collection. In creating ‘Domestic Exchange’ Wilson found
his 3D voice to make live sculptures using every day objects with low cultural
value to make poignant points around freedom, choice, race.
Over the past decade, New York based Cuban
American Anthony
Goicolea has gained a reputation as the consummate
storyteller. Having created a
significant body of work which has gained great acclaim and found its way into
numerous galleries both locally and internationally, Goicolea’s multimedia
works are enigmatic, mysterious, ambiguous, humorous, unsettling, and
provocative.
Brooklyn-based
Englishman Rob Carter has a knack
for exposing landmarks and iconic structures from above while using his often
comedic but always thoughtful knife (literally and figuratively) to create
collages of the original material. Whether its placing the unofficial
Church of England (the home of footballers Manchester United) in Canterbury
Cathedral, the home of the actual Church of England or placing imagery literally
among plants and documenting its growth, his work is thought provoking and
engaging.
First initiated by Brazilian-born
artist Eli Sudbrack in 1994 as a professional tag, assume vivid astro focus is now a continuously evolving
international group of artists known for creating multi-sensational mash-ups of
graffiti, disco worship, gay porn and carnival in
the form of large-scale installations and performance art. They are included in the permanent
collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Judith Rothschild
Foundation Contemporary Drawing Collection.
Films4peace celebrates World Peace Day - an international
United Nations day of ceasefire, and a day for individuals, organizations and
countries to demonstrate acts of peace.
Each artist will visually interpret the subject of Peace to create a
short film, which, in keeping with the spirit of the commission, will be
gifted to the world, within public domain and free from screening fees, as
tools for peace. By releasing these
short films as broadly as possible, on multiple live and virtual platforms, the
aim is to effect positive social change and broaden the discussions around
peace globally.
The films include 35 mm live action, experimental
animation and fine art approaches. The artists are selected for the quality and
scope of their work and their sensitivity in interpreting the theme.
PUMA
PUMA is one of the world’s
leading Sportlifestyle companies that designs and develops footwear, apparel
and accessories. It is committed to working in ways that contribute to the
world by supporting Creativity, SAFE Sustainability and Peace, and by staying
true to the principles of being Fair, Honest, Positive and Creative in
decisions made and actions taken. PUMA starts in Sport and ends in Fashion. Its
Sport Performance and Lifestyle labels include categories such as Football,
Running, Motorsports, Golf and Sailing. Sport Fashion features collaborations
with renowned designer labels such as Alexander McQueen and Mihara Yasuhiro.
The PUMA Group owns the brands PUMA, Cobra Golf and Tretorn. The company, which
was founded in 1948, distributes its products in more than 120 countries,
employs about 11,000 people worldwide and has headquarters in
Herzogenaurach/Germany, Boston, London and Hong Kong. For more information,
please visit http://www.puma.com
