attack SUV

Co-presented with grunt gallery

January 25 - 28, Robson and Hornby, Outside the Vancouver Art Gallery

ECI Artist Talk Wednesday, January 24, 5pm

A sport utility vehicle is still fuming after having exploded. This hyper-realistic scene depicts a terrorist attack simultaneously incriminating the automobile industry, rampant consumerism and governments. This intervention will heighten the public's awareness of the perverse effects of these gas-guzzling, power-hungry vehicles.

ATTACK #15 gives us pause to reflect on our political and environmental position as Canadians. Where do we stand on Kyoto? We are being asked to follow through on our Kyoto Protocol commitments and to reflect on the damaging consequences of our dependency on black gold and its link to the state of peace in the world, notably in Iraq.

After fourteen high-impact performances in Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto, Calgary and Ottawa, ATTACK #15 will take place in Vancouver. The public is invited to come to the scene of the crime 24 hours a day to discuss, film or photograph the exhibit, or to meet the artists between 10am and 10pm (10am-6pm on Sunday.) Many products stemming from the intervention will be available on the spot: a DVD of the manifesto, miniature replicas of ATTACK, stickers, and the Citizen's Statement of Offence.

Since 1997, L'Action Terroriste Socialement Acceptable, or ATSA, founded by artists Annie Roy and Pierre Allard, has been creating "urban interventions" which question society and its values. ATSA events rattle the urban landscape and open it up to societal debates. The company's very name is an aberration and is intended as a reflection of the themes motivating the pair's creations.www.atsa.qc.ca

grunt is an artist-run centre formed in 1984 in Vancouver. The grunt programs exhibitions, performances, artist talks, publications and special projects by contemporary Canadian and international artists. www.grunt.bc.ca

Special thanks to the Vancouver Art Gallery. On Friday, January 26, as part of the Vancouver Art Gallery's FUSE event, ATSA will present an exhibit about Attack #10 - a wall of some of the 10,000 statements of offence that were given out in August 2005 in Montreal to condemn huge vehicles and bad ecological attitudes around cars. This wall will be the screen for a video projection of the Attack series which has taken place from 2003 to the present. The Artists will explain the social and political impact their work and distribute a Vancouver statement of offence to everyone who would like to become a patroller.

PuSh will present an ATSA workshop at the Vancouver Art Gallery January 28, 2-5pm, room 302.

Admission is free. None Grunt Gallery