Oakville Galleries presents Hedda Roman & Sunset Kino

Oakville Galleries announces its summer exhibition Rogue Planet by German artist duo Hedda Roman, opening on Saturday, June 22. Following
the opening is our Summer Party and the first program of Sunset Kino,
Canada’s only outdoor, avant-garde film festival.

Hedda Roman: Rogue Planet
At Gairloch Gardens and Centennial Square, Oakville Galleries
June 22–September 28 2024

Exhibition opening events: Saturday, June 22nd, 2024 
2–5pm: exhibition opening, Centennial Square 
3–6pm: exhibition Reception and Remarks at Gairloch Gardens
6–10pm: Summer Party & Sunset Kino in Gairloch Gardens

Hedda Roman will be in attendance.

All are welcome. All events are free. Join the Art Bus!

The exhibition Rogue Planet by Hedda Roman,
explores the complexities of fictional biography, origin, and identity
through AI technologies. Central to this exhibition is Oldboy, an avatar
and Latent Space Traveller, whose poetic dialogues bridge digital
realms with reality. Oldboy’s existence challenges more traditional
concepts of origin and identity, reflecting the transformative impact of
digital technologies and AI on our understanding of selfhood. 

The
exhibition invites visitors to reconsider identity in the context of
digital narratives and essentialism, and prompts a reflection on how
machine learning and digital technologies shape, distort, and
reconstruct our perceptions of identity and reality. Ultimately Rogue Planet
encourages deeper contemplation on the influence of digitalization on
identity as well as the authenticity of our personal and collective
stories.

Hedda Roman is a
Düsseldorf-based artist mesh composed of Hedda Schattanik and Roman
Szczesny. Interweaving cinematographic elements with surreal animation,
literature, drama, sculpture, photography, and drawing, they create,
among others, immersive video installations as well as
computer-generated images. Solo exhibitions include Sies Höke,
Düsseldorf (2023, 2021), Salzburger Kunstverein, (2023), Kunstverein für
die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf (2021), Sammlung Philara,
Düsseldorf (2019), Julia Stoschek Collection, Studio 54, Düsseldorf
(2019), Insel Hombroich, Neuss (2018), COMA Gallery, Sydney (2018).

Hedda Roman
are also Oakville Galleries’ first artists-in-residence for 2024. This
unique artist residency and apartment is located at Gairloch Gardens,
one of the region’s most beautiful parks. 

Special thanks to Goethe-Institut Toronto for supporting this exhibition & residency.

Sunset Kino
Oakville Galleries in Gairloch Gardens
June 22, 2024–July 11, 2024

Sunset Kino
is Canada’s only outdoor, avant-garde film festival. Founded by Séamus
Kealy in Austria in 2017, this festival continues now at Oakville
Galleries. Introduced by the programmers and commencing at sunset,
audiences experience a curated program of films and videos by Canadian
and international artists. 

This year’s theme, “Everything is a
Lie,” complements the summer exhibition by Hedda Roman. The program
explores narratives that inform our current world, encouraging deeper
consideration of the influence of digitalization on identity and the
authenticity of our personal and collective stories. The program thus
ventures into themes of truth and fiction; reality and virtuality;
distortion and essentialism; disinformation, propaganda and
representation; as well as how art, film, ideas and politics all
intersect in a rapidly changing world.

Program
Saturday, June 22, 8:30pm
Films by Catherina Cramer, Daphne Fietz, Fynn Ribbeck, and Silke Schönfeld
Programmed by Hedda Roman

Thursday, June 27, 8:30pm
Films by Aideen Barry
Programmed by Séamus Kealy

Thursday, July 4, 8:30pm
Films by Rehab Nazzal, Ali Kazimi, Jayce Salloum, and Sanaz Sohrabi
Programmed by Faisal Anwar & Tazeen Qayyum

Thursday, July 11, 8:30pm
Films by Adrian Paci
Programmed by Séamus Kealy

Oakville
Galleries operates with support from the Canada Council for the Arts,
the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario, and
the Corporation of the Town of Oakville, along with individual,
corporate, and foundation partners.