Kirk Tougas is a noted experimental media artist, director of photography, producer, director, curator, founder of the Pacific Cinematheque and initiator of Xinema in Vancouver, Canada. He received an Honorary Doctorate from the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, 2024.
Creator of numerous experimental works, he has been variously described as a structural or conceptual artist. While varying in style and form, his artworks have broadly pursued three themes:
the inherent nature of a film/digital medium and its message; portraiture and self-imaging as a human phenomenon from cave walls to the Selfie;
and the poetics of a medium composed of image, sound and time.
All within a discourse of each viewer’s subjective experience.
Nominated for a Canadian Academy Award, he is best known for the politics of perception and the medium is the message which along with his other works have been distinguished with screenings and installations in museums, universities, art schools, biennales, and film/video festivals. Among the more notable international exhibitions:
MOSTRA INTERNAZIONALE DEL CINEMA DI GENOA, Italy
]ON[ SCREEN: BEYOND THE DIGITAL HORIZON – Vienna, Austria
CITTA INCROCIATE – Sant’Agata De’Goti, Italy
IMAGE PLAY VI – Funchal, Madeira, Portugal
PRIMAROLIA, Villa Kolla, Patras, Greece
XINEMA, Vancouver, Canada
VISIBLE EVIDENCE XXIX, Udine, Italy
ASOLO ART FILM FESTIVAL, Italy
VIDEO ART MIDEN, Thessaloniki
XINEMA #4 – VANCOUVER INT’L FILM FESTIVAL
SAIGON EXPERIMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL
ECRA6 - Museu de Arte Moderna - Rio de Janeiro
25th FESTIVAL INT’L DE VIDEOPOESIA, Buenos Aires
CINEMATEKET, Oslo
LIGHT INDUSTRY, Brooklyn, NY
PANTALLA ROTA: APOCALIPSIS TECNOCRATICO, Buenos Aires
SPLIT VIDEOART FESTIVAL, Split, Croatia
BESIDES THE SCREEN, Porto, Portugal
CINEINFINITO #118, Santander, Spain
65th OBERHAUSEN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, Germany
FRACTO, Berlin
EXPERIMENTADESIGN, Lisbon, Portugal
SYROS INT’L FILM FESTIVAL, Greece
TOKYO METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHY
YEBISU INT’L FESTIVAL FOR ART & ALTERNATIVE VISIONS, Japan
MUSEE JEU DE PAUME, Paris
ECOLE DE BEAUX-ARTS, Bordeaux, France
MYKONOS BIENNALE, Greece
ECOLE NATIONALE SUPERIEURE DE CREATION INDUSTRIELLE, Paris
MUSEO DE BELLAS ARTES DE BILBAO, Spain
CENTRE GEORGES POMPIDOU, Paris
CINEMATHEQUE QUEBECOISE, Montreal
THE INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART, London, England
VANCOUVER ART GALLERY, PACIFIC CINEMATHEQUE, “The Impossible Self”.
FESTIVAL OF FILMS ON ART, Montreal
AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL, New York
11eme FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL DU FILM D'ART, UNESCO,
CENTRE GEORGES POMPIDOU, Paris
CINETECA NAZIONALE, Rome
ECOLE SUPERIEURE DES BEAUX ART DE GENEVE, Switzerland
MK2 TV, Paris
FILMOTECA ESPANOLA, Madrid, Barcelona
CINEMA DU REEL, Paris
6th VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
41st EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, Scotland
OREGON ART INSTITUTE, Portland
EMILY CARR COLLEGE OF ART, Vancouver
NATIONAL FILM WEEK, Canada
"ELECTRA - LES PLASTICIENS DE LA LUMIERE",
MUSEE D'ART MODERN DE LA VILLE DE PARIS
VANCOUVER ART GALLERY, "Art & Artists, 1931-1983"
FESTIVAL D'AVIGNON, France
SHERIDAN COLLEGE OF APPLIED ARTS & TECHNOLOGY, Ontario
XI BIENNALE D'ART MODERNE, CENTRE GEORGES POMPIDOU
& MUSEE D'ART MODERNE DE LA VILLE DE PARIS
ECOLE DES BEAUX ARTS, Tours, France
LA CINEMATHEQUE FRANCAISE, Paris
GRIERSON FILM SEMINAR, Ontario
MAISON DES BEAUX ARTS, Paris
MUSEE d'ART MODERNE, “CANADA TRAJECTOIRES”, Paris
7th BELLEVUE FILM FESTIVAL, Washington
10th ANN ARBOR FILM FESTIVAL, Michigan
He is the founder of Pacific Cinematheque in Vancouver, Canada and Creative/Executive Director for nine years. As a director of photography, producer or director, he is responsible for over 250 documentaries of social, cultural, political and anthropological content, films that have received prizes and accolades from over 50 major festivals.
