VANCOUVER, February 4, 2005 -- Minister of Canadian Heritage and Minister responsible for Status of Women Liza Frulla today announced Canada's cultural programming for the 2005 World Exposition in Aichi, Japan. Internationally acclaimed Canadian artists Alanis Morissette and Corneille will be among the creative talent in performing, visual, and literary arts who will represent Canada at Expo 2005."Artists are at the heart of our culture," said Minister Frulla. "We must give them the means to display their talent and to reach as many people as possible. This is what we will do at Aichi, in Japan, at Expo 2005. The Canada Pavilion will be a wonderful showcase for a large number of our creative people from all regions of our country."Ottawa-born Alanis Morissette and Corneille, a Montrealer of Rwandan origin, will join with other artists taking part in special programming planned for the April 5 celebration of Canada's national day at Expo 2005. "World's fairs enable us to promote the interests of Canada, while allowing Canadians to be recognized for their tradition of excellence," said Minister Frulla. "Canada's participation in Expo 2005 will highlight all aspects of our country's diversity, whether in cultural, environmental, economic, or innovative technological terms."Canadians are invited to contribute in various ways to Canada's presence at Expo 2005. They can visit the Canada Pavilion's Web site or take part in various initiatives and competitions that highlight Canadian participation at Expo 2005 and were developed in cooperation with partner institutions across Canada. The 2005 World Exposition will take place in Aichi, Japan, from March 25 to September 25. It is expected to attract more than 15 million visitors.For more information on Canada's cultural programming and all aspects of its participation in Expo 2005, please visit the Web site at www.expo2005canada.gc.caInformation:Jean-Philippe CôtéDirector of CommunicationsOffice of the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Minister responsible for Status of Women(819) 997-7788 Myriam BrochuChief, Media RelationsCanadian Heritage(819) 997-9314 BACKGROUNDERCanada's Cultural Program at Expo 2005Inspired by the theme of diversity, Canada's Cultural Program at Expo 2005 showcases a range of talented Canadian artists from across the country, whose work highlights our diversity, our creativity and our talent for innovation. Following an extensive consultation process involving arts organizations from across Canada, as well as national institutions and cultural industry associations, OYE! Canada, the Canadian joint venture responsible for producing Canada's cultural program for the Expo, has gathered together a select group of artists from three major fields -- Performing Arts, Literary Arts and Visual Arts. These artists will proudly represent Canada in all its cultural diversity. From March 25 to September 25, 2005, dozens of Canadian singers, dancers, writers and other talents will appear on the Expo stages or have their work displayed on site. These outstanding artists were chosen among the 1000 Canadians who submitted their candidacy in response to OYE! Canada's Call to Artists. Performing ArtsAmong the highlights of the Performing Arts component of the cultural program will be the special activities taking place on April 5, which has been designated Canada's National Day at Expo 2005. National Day celebrations will include a show at the Expo Dome, Expo 2005's main concert venue, starring Alanis Morissette and Corneille. A series of special events and activities will also be held to mark Canada Week, from June 24 to July 1. National Day: April 5Ottawa native and international superstar Alanis Morissette will take the stage at the Expo Dome on Canada's National Day at Expo 2005 as she headlines a talent-packed show featuring Canadian performers from diverse backgrounds and every region of the country. Alanis is looking forward to taking part in Expo 2005, and "to be representing Canada and the creativity and innovation that come out of this country."Also appearing will be francophone singing sensation Corneille, who became a Canadian citizen just last fall. This talented musician, who now considers Montréal his home, fled his native Rwanda amid war and personal tragedy in the 1990's. He has now won critical praise and the adoration of millions of fans in both his adopted home and abroad. Corneille is honoured to represent Canada at Expo 2005: "I remember as a child reading that Canada was the best country in the world to live in. And here I am, ten years later representing this beautiful country and its values, one of which is very special to me: the respect of others and of their differences." Among the other artists taking part in the National Day celebrations will be: the Northern Shadow Dancers, a dynamic Cree dance group hailing from Dawson Creek, British Columbia; Janelle Dupuis, a 13-year-old Acadian fiddling champion from Memramcook, New Brunswick; Diouf, a group from Montréal whose music incorporates traditional Senegalese melodies with the world beat; the Tagonak Inuit Cultural Performers, from Baker Lake, Nunavut; Rubberbandance, from Toronto and Montréal, a group of world-class dancers who perform an innovative mix of hip-hop and contemporary classicism; and Jeremy Fisher, a singer-songwriter in the folk tradition from Vancouver, British Columbia.Golden Week: April 23 and May 4Juno-Award winning trio Shaye will perform during Japan's Golden Week, a week-long national holiday in April. An exciting collaboration between Kim Stockwood, Damhnait Doyle and Tara MacLean -- all of whom are exceptionally talented singer-songwriters in their own right -- Shaye will offer Expo visitors a good dose of East Coast music. Canada Week: June 24-July 1Canada Week will include performances by three outstanding female artists: Keshia Chanté, Jorane and Coral Egan. Keshia Chanté is a 16-year-old vocal powerhouse from Ottawa, Ontario who first burst on to the scene in 2003 and has not looked back since. Keshia's R&B style and commanding voice have already won her a loyal fan base and numerous awards. Montréal artist Jorane is a master cellist whose performances combine voice and instrument to create a sound that is truly mesmerizing. Jorane has received numerous ADISQ and Juno nominations and won the award for best album -- contemporary folk at the ADISQ ceremony last year. Also from Montréal, Coral Egan has a unique hybrid style culled from folk, soul, reggae, pop and jazz. Coral's first album "The Path of Least Resistance" was released in 2002 and was nominated for a Juno. Expo Hall Classical Showcase: September 24Classical artists of all ages and from every region of Canada will gather to put on a performance for the Expo Hall Classical Showcase. Featured artists are Japanese-Canadian pianist Lisa Yui from Edmonton, Alberta, 13-year-old pianist Lucas Porter from Port Williams, Nova Scotia, and duo Similia, from Québec.Other ShowsOther artists appearing throughout the exposition are: teen blues sensation Jimmy Bowskill, from Peterborough, Ontario, who has been wowing audiences across Canada since the tender age of 11; Pamela Morgan, a singer-songwriter from Topsail, Newfoundland, whose roots in Celtic music continue to inspire her hauntingly beautiful style; Lulu and the Tomcat, from Winnipeg, Manitoba, an acclaimed musical duo that delights audiences of children and families; Ceilidh Friends, a four-voice folk group from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories; Warparty, from Hobbema, Alberta, a group whose hip-hop beats are rooted in Aboriginal culture; and Marilyn Faye Parney, from Dalmeny, Saskatchewan, an award-winning singer and songwriter whose upbeat performances and energy reflect her Prairie roots.Literary ArtsCartoonists' DuelCanadian cartoonists Samuel Parent (Sampar) and Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas will participate in "duels" with their Japanese counterparts during live performances on site. To the delight of onlookers, each cartoonist will produce a giant cartoon strip on a theme provided at the event. Hailing from Victoriaville, Québec, Sampar is a multi-talented author and artist who specializes in caricature and illustrating children's novels. Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, a Haida artist from the Queen Charlotte Islands in British Columbia, has acquired a world-renowned reputation for his "Haida Manga" cartooning style, which fuses Native Totem art with Japanese Manga, an extremely popular style in Japan. StorytellingShannon Thunderbird is an Aboriginal singer from Victoria, British Columbia, storyteller, poet speaker and educator, and member of the Gisbutwada clan of the Tsimshian people. Accompanied by a drummer, Shannon captures audiences through her passionate stories that recount the history, culture and spirituality of First Nations people.Readings and meetings with authors at the Canada PavilionChildren's authors Bertrand Gauthier and Marie-Francine Hébert, from Montréal, Québec and Karen Levine from Toronto, Ontario, and Tim Wynne-Jones from Perth, Ontario will read excerpts from their work at special events held at the Canada Pavilion with invited youth and members of the general public. Readings at the Canada PavilionAcclaimed authors Ann Marie MacDonald from Toronto, Ontario, whose debut novel Fall On Your Knees won numerous awards and attracted a huge international readership; Robert Lalonde from Oka, Québec, recipient of the Order of Canada in 2004 for his work as an author, novelist, poet and comedian; and France Daigle from Moncton, New Brunswick, prize-winning Acadian author of novels for adults, will read excerpts from their work at special events held at the VIP Lounge of the Canada Pavilion.Visual Arts The works of visual artists representing Canada at Expo 2005 will be featured in two special exhibitions at the Manulife VIP Lounge of the Canada Pavilion, the first from March to June, and the second from July until closing day. While the work of these artists reflects Canada in all its cultural, regional and artistic diversity, it also speaks to the theme of Expo 2005, Nature's Wisdom.The following is a list of participating artists and the work that will be exhibited. Suvenai Ashoona (Cape Dorset, Nunavut)Pen drawings of the Arctic landscape rendered in a uniquely delicate style. Seemingly from an aerial perspective, these views of the tundra are intricately detailed abstract patterns. Often the scenes reveal traces of human presence, as in Encampment.David Askevold (Dartmouth, Nova Scotia)Harbour Ghosts (1998) is a large-scale photomontage. It is richly layered with water and sky imagery as well as scientific devices such as nautical instruments. As with his shoreline studies, Askevold explores human systems for measuring natural phenomenon. A new video based on footage shot in the volcanic landscape of Iceland will also be screened.Edward Burtnysky (Toronto, Ontario)Colour photographs of industrial landscapes from this award-winning documentary photographer. Selected from recent projects around the world, the images include shipbreaking in Bangladesh, marble quarries, tire recycling yard in California and mine tailings in Sudbury fields. Michael Campbell (Lethbridge Alberta)This footage of a burning canoe floating down the Muskoka River is the video component of a large-scale mixed-media installation entitled I want to know who you'd be in best of all possible worlds. The iconic tranquil setting is turned into a surreal scene that takes on ceremonial and transcendent connotations.Isabelle Hayeur (Montréal, Québec) Three large photomontage panoramas and a video in which the artist digitally blends different sites into fabricated landscapes. Often revealing traces of human activity, these unnatural environments suggest the fragility of ecosystems.Joanne Jackson Johnson (Whitehorse, Yukon)A selection from the series of colour photographs, More Land than People (1998-2000). The artist has scientifically documented a collection of natural and industrial artifacts found in various "middens" around her Yukon farm, such as a lard bucket and a petrified horse bone from Last Chance Creek.Louise Noguchi (Toronto, Ontario)The video piece, Crack (2000) depicts the artist, clad in traditional Japanese attire, holding flowers that explode with the crack of an invisible whip. This meditative video loop makes symbolic reference to cultural identities and forces that dominate nature. Ruth Qaulluaryuk (Baker Lake, Nunavut)Distinctive fabric wallhangings by an Inuit artist who works primarily with abstract compositions. These works on cloth are densely covered with richly coloured fabrics shaped into overlapping circles. Untitled Landscape, the piece created in 2000 is based on landscape and foliage motifs that refer to the arctic tundra.Doug Smarch (Teslin, Yukon)Lucinations (2003) is an interpretation of a legend from Tlingit culture brought from the 1800s into the contemporary realm through the magic quality of hi-tech Maya animation. The vivid imagery depicts natural and animal worlds in interactive states of transformation.Michael Snow (Toronto, Ontario)Sheeploop offers a droll take on the pastoral. Watching sheep gradually munch their way across a pasture, over and over again, forces a reconsideration of the beauty of such idyllic settings. Typical of Snow's filmmaking strategies, this media work creates an awareness of how we look at landscape as well as the nature of perception itself.Annie Taipanak (Baker Lake, Nunavut)This artist has been producing unique fabric wallhangings since the early 1970s. Using appliqué and open-stitch embroidery techniques, her complex imagery depicts Inuit stories of human and animal activities on the land.Ian Toews (Regina, Saskatchewan)Two experimental films that interpret the cultural geographies of place. Four Corners (1998), filmed on Navajo land in the American Southwest, is a poetic response to the degradation of this natural environment. The fast-paced image collage and eery soundtrack create a sense of urgency. Japan: Kesei Line Single Take (2001) tracks movement through built and natural environments that often merge into abstract patterns.Mina Totino (Vancouver, British Columbia) Selections from a series of paintings from 1999 based on the final scene in Antonioni's film Zabriskie Point. The artist studied this enigmatic scene of beauty and destruction to examine notions of the sublime. Far from inducing romantic reverie, though, these landscape paintings reflect the artifice of cinematic effects and the violence of natural phenomenon. To view the complete line-up of Canadian artists appearing at Expo 2005 and for more information on each artist, go to: www.expo2005canada.gc.ca.
