From: Joanne Tremblay <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: 21 November 2006 17:48:41 GMT
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Suspension de PARACHUTE / PARACHUTE suspends its publication
Press Release
For Immediate Release
Ý
THE CONTEMPORARY ART MAGAZINE
PARACHUTE SUSPENDS PUBLICATION
Montreal, 20 November 2006 ó The contemporary art magazine PARACHUTE,
founded in 1974, has taken the difficult decision to suspend its
activities. Despite the success of its new format, introduced in 2000,
and its international recognition, funding levels no longer make it
possible to ensure a reasonable level of quality and stability.
Despite its determination and efforts to maintain the journalís
presence on the contemporary art scene and to continue operations,
PARACHUTEís board of directors was obliged to take this last-resort
decision after examining all the economic and social factors which
would have enabled the journal to extract itself from the impasse
facing it. The journal had recently succeeded in increasing its sales
by more than 200% while at the same time cutting expenses and trimming
budgets. Major fundraising efforts over the last years have produced
significant but insufficient results. As well, the repeated demands on
government agencies have been unproductive. An overall drop in
subsidies, in tandem with the current funding structure of the journal
and the media environment today make the task that much more complex.
Despite PARACHUTEís exceptional longevity in a highly competitive
milieu ó a longevity owing to the enthusiasm of its contributors and
readers and to the unflagging determination of its director ó its
suspension of activities at this time highlights the precariousness of
cultural organizations in Quebec and the rest of Canada.
In a letter to the journalís readers appearing in PARACHUTE 125 in
January 2007, Chantal Pontbriand, director, writes:
ìWhen the bell tolls, the adventure should come to a stop, at least
in the way it has been led until now. The economic structure needed to
pursue this passionate venture linking actors from around the world is
gravely lacking at this point. The situation was never comfortable,
but the continuing withdrawal of government funding for innovation in
the arts and the need to cultivate ever-more private funding in a
country where sponsorship of contemporary art is underdeveloped and
where few private art galleries in the field exist, does not help our
effort to raise funds and be self-sustaining. After huge efforts to
cut costs and increase fundraising in the private sector in the hope
of counteracting a too-fragile economic situation, our endeavour must
come to a halt while we reconsider the situation and find other ways
of doing what we do. Personally, I do not wish to stop myself, being
convinced of the need for the magazine.î
PARACHUTEís board of directors and director would like to extend
their warm thanks to all those who contributed to the journalís great
success over the years: its founding members, its staff and board
members over the years, its readers, authors, artists, editors,
correspondents, graphic artists, copy editors, proofreaders,
translators, printers, subscribers, advertisers, distributors, donors,
collectors and federal, provincial, municipal and foreign funding
agencies.
Founded in Montreal and published in English and French from its very
first issue, PARACHUTEís mission is to investigate new
transdisciplinary and multimedia artistic practices and to develop a
critical and theoretical language specific to the new directions art
is taking today. Published and edited from the start by the art critic
and curator Chantal Pontbriand, PARACHUTE has a track record of more
than thirty years in the field of contemporary art. One hundred and
twenty-five issues at a rate of four per year have been produced and
twenty-four books published. Numerous exhibitions were mounted,
including curating the Canadian pavilion at the 44th Venice Biennale
in 1990 and multidisciplinary international festivals. Eleven symposia
and several discussion laboratories were held in Montreal and
elsewhere under the title PARAZONES. With a print run of 4,000 ñ 5,000
copies, PARACHUTE can be found in more than forty countries and in the
libraries of the worldís major institutions. More than 3,000 top-notch
writers have published their work in the journal, including art
critics, philosophers, scholars in every field and world-famous
artists from every corner of the planet.
PARACHUTE is a reference publication both locally and
internationally, and essays published there have been reprinted far
and wide and remain an important source of information and ideas for
the arts community and the general public. In 2004, La Lettre volÈe in
Brussels published Essais choisis 1975-2000, a collection of some of
the most important articles appearing in the journal since its
founding. An English anthology will be co-published by Pennsylvania
State University Press and Tate Publishing and a Spanish edition is
being prepared by CENDEAC in Spain.
PARACHUTE has been chosen by the Documenta 12 Magazine Project as one
of the eighty journals around the world which works to link artistic
practices, theoretical discourse and the public. These journals are
collaborating on the creation of a web site on the theoretical and
artistic issues being raised by the next edition of Documenta in
Kassel in the summer of 2007.
PARACHUTE has extended its examination of the questions facing the
contemporary art world today in recent thematic issues such as THE
IDEA OF COMMUNITY, DEMOCRACY, ECONOMIE(S), BORDERS and VIOLENCE. Other
recent issues have been devoted to ìemergingî cities such as MEXICO
CITY, BEIRUT, SHANGHAI and SO PAULO. PARACHUTE 125 is devoted to
HAVANA and will be on sale in January 2007.
TO REACT TO THIS ANNOUNCEMENT, PLEASE WRITE TO: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Source: PARACHUTE, contemporary art magazine: T 514.842.9805
Press kit: www.parachute.ca
Media contact: Joanne Trem
