MEGALODEMOCRAT
The Public Art of Rafael Lozano‑Hemmer
A film by Benjamin Duffield
Canada-Mexico co‑production
Feature documentary 94 mins
Fierce Bad Rabbit Pictures
4006 rue Drolet, Montréal, Québec H2W 2L2 Canada
514.889.8949
ben@fbrp.ca
www.fbrp.ca
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SYNOPSIS
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is one of the most acclaimed artists working today, but his pieces wouldn’t exist without public participation. MEGALODEMOCRAT explores Rafael’s quest to stage a democratic takeover of urban space. Shot over 10 years in 30 cities around the world, the film provides intimate access to his large-scale interactive creations in locations such as Trafalgar Square in London, the Vancouver Olympics and New York’s Park Avenue Tunnel, culminating in a piece that crosses the US-Mexico border. In our increasingly isolated lives, MEGALODEMOCRAT serves as an antidote to alienation: Rafael’s work is a rallying point for a screened-in urban population, longing to connect. His art doesn’t discriminate, and all who participate are given a voice. With that voice comes a sense of hope.
Benjamin Duffield
(Producer, Director, Writer, Editor)
MUSIC BY
Steve Reich, Michael Nyman, Sonido Gallo Negro, Scanner, Batallones Femeninos
Delezeta, Luar, Pérez Prado, Chucho Monge, James Gelfand & Louise Tremblay.
FILMED ON LOCATION
Abu Dhabi, Basel, Berlin, Ciudad Juárez, Dublin, Duisburg, El Paso, Graz, Hong Kong, Linz, Lisbon, London, Los Angeles, Lyon, Melbourne, Mexico City, Montréal,
Moscow, New York, Paris, Philadelphia, Québec City, Rotterdam, Salamanca, Sydney, Toulouse, Vancouver, Venice, Vitoria-Gasteiz and Wellington.
SCREENING HISTORY
The film opened the 36th International Festival of Films on Art in Montreal in front of 800 people and won "Best Canadian Film".
www.artfifa.com
Benjamin Duffield
PRODUCER | DIRECTOR
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Benjamin Duffield is a Montreal-based filmmaker who works both sides of the street, directing and editing fiction and documentary films. Since graduating from the University of British Columbia with a B.A. in Film and Theatre in 1993 he has created award-winning film and television for the Canadian and American markets.
In 1996 he joined five filmmakers to make Yukonna, an expedition documentary on the Yukon River that retraced the prospectors’ journey a century ago. The film sold to National Geographic, won several awards and played on the CBC during their 1998 Canada Day celebrations.
More recent accomplishments include directing the sci-fi feature “Darwin” starring Nick Krause and Molly Parker which premiered at the 2016 Vancouver World Film Festival, co-directing the feature documentary “Singing in the Shadow: the Children of Rock Royalty”, and co-editing “Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World”, which won a Special Jury Prize for Masterful Storytelling at Sundance 2017 and a Canadian Screen Award for Best Film and Best Editing.
Rafael Lozano‑Hemmer
DOCUMENTARY SUBJECT
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Rafael Lozano-Hemmer was born in Mexico City in 1967. He emigrated to Canada in 1985 to study at the University of Victoria in British Columbia and then received his Bachelor of Science in Physical Chemistry from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada.
EXHIBITIONS. Recently the subject of solo exhibitions at the MUAC Museum in Mexico City, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, he was the first artist to officially represent Mexico at the Venice Biennale with a monographic exhibition at Palazzo Soranzo Van Axel in 2007. He has also shown at Art Biennials and Triennials in Havana, Istanbul, Kochi, Liverpool, Montréal, Moscow, New Orleans, New York ICP, Seville, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore and Sydney.
COLLECTIONS. Collections holding his work include MoMA, Guggenheim and Museo del Barrio in New York, Tate and Science Museum in London, CIFO and PAMM in Miami, Jumex and MUAC in Mexico City, DAROS in Zurich, Borusan in Istanbul, 21st Century Museum of Art in Kanazawa, MAG in Manchester, SFMOMA in San Francisco, MONA in Hobart, ZKM in Karlsruhe, MAC and MBAM in Montréal, AGO in Toronto, National Gallery in Melbourne, SAM in Singapore, the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington D.C. and many others.
PUBLIC ART. His large-scale interactive installations have been commissioned for events such as the Millennium Celebrations in Mexico City (1999), the Cultural Capital of Europe in Rotterdam (2001), the UN World Summit of Cities in Lyon (2003), the opening of the YCAM Center in Japan (2003), the Expansion of the European Union in Dublin (2004), the memorial for the Tlatelolco Student Massacre in Mexico City (2008), the Winter Olympics in Vancouver (2010), and the pre-opening exhibition of the Guggenheim in Abu Dhabi (2015).
PERMANENT COMMISSIONS. Over two dozen permanent architectural pieces are currently being developed for public and private buildings around the World. Many of them are already operating such as ATT in Dallas, Science Museum in London, Amore Pacific Museum in Seoul, PHI Centre in Montréal and Fidelity Headquarters in Boston.
AWARDS. He has received two BAFTA British Academy Awards for Interactive Art in London, a Golden Nica at the Prix Ars Electronica in Austria, “Artist of the year” Rave Award from Wired Magazine, a Rockefeller fellowship, the Trophée des Lumières in Lyon, an International Bauhaus Award in Dessau, the Governor General’s Award in Canada and was named Compagnon des arts et des lettres in Québec.
LECTURES. He has lectured at Goldsmiths college, the Bartlett school, Princeton, Harvard, UC Berkeley, Cooper Union, USC, MIT MediaLab, Guggenheim Museum, LA MOCA, Netherlands Architecture Institute, Cornell, UPenn, University of Michigan, SCAD, Danish Architecture Cente, CCA in Montreal, ICA in London and the Art Institute of Chicago.
PUBLICATIONS. There are nine monographs on Lozano-Hemmer’s work, featuring essays by Cuauhtémoc Medina, Scott McQuire, John Hanhardt, Rodrigo Alonso, Beryl Graham, Cecilia Fajardo-Hill, Manuel De Landa, Victor Stoichita, Barbara London, Geert Lovink, and Brian Massumi. Lozano-Hemmer’s own writing has appeared in Kunstforum (Germany), Leonardo (USA), Performance Research (UK), and Archis (Netherlands).
