The Copycat Academy
A project by Hannah Hurtzig
Produced by Luminato Festival
A weeklong masterclass with an absent master.
Designed to engage emerging artists from diverse fields, The Copycat Academy takes the work and biography of an artist as the model for its curriculum. Over a one-week intensive learning experience, an artist’s method of production – that of the master – will be hijacked and subjected to a temporary parasitic inhabitation. The Copycat Academy participants will “ape” the master: gutting, consuming and incorporating the master. It is a critical test of thought and practice, a laboratory where 20 participants can observe the emergence of meaning while they occupy and replicate themselves in the host. It’s a masterclass with an absent master. The 2015 Academy will focus on filmmaker David Cronenberg.
COPYCAT TALKS
Members of the public are invited to join The Copycat Academy participants for Copycat Talks, as the faculty delivers a series of lectures that expand the scope of their teaching.
Explore philosophical investigations on cannibalism and ritual anthropophagy with Dr. Pedro de Niemeyer Cesarino, hear film theorist Jonathan Beller suggest that Cronenberg’s Videodrome, despite its apparently fantasmatic dimensions, is an early form of Contemporary Realism, and visit The Copycat Academy Open House to see Dr. Bojana Cvejić’s Running Commentary on Cronenberg.
About Luminato Festival
Luminato Festival is Toronto’s international multi-arts festival for people open to having art change their outlook on the world. For 10 days each June, Luminato Festival transforms Toronto’s theatres, parks and public spaces with hundreds of events celebrating theatre, dance, music, literature, food, visual arts, magic, film, and more.
Luminato Festival is a charitable, not-for-profit, cultural organization whose vision is to commission and present significant local, national, and international programming that reflects Toronto as a crossroads of ideas, cultures and traditions. Now in its 9th year, Luminato Festival has become one of North America’s leading arts festivals. Luminato Festival runs June 19 to 28, 2015. luminatofestival.com
June 21, 2015
to June 28, 2015
Tickets from $10
The Theatre Centre
Lecture by Dr. Pedro de Niemeyer Cesarino: Inventions and Transformations of Anthropophagy in Ethnology and Brazilian Arts
Monday, June 22, 2015 – 8pm
Lecture by Jonathan Beller: Erotics of Computational Incorporation
Friday, June 26, 2015 – 8pm
Running Commentary Installation (FREE)
Sunday, June 28, 2015 – 4-7pm
Each talk is approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes
November 25, 2025
From Artistic Director Aislinn Rose “We, and the artists and community who have found a home at 1115 Queen Street West, shall be forever grateful. Thank you Lindy.” Lindy Cowan and Chris Hatley being celebrated at the naming event for The Theatre Centre’s Franco Boni Theatre in 2016, and the closing of our capital campaign. I...
November 24, 2025
City of Craft, photo by Jae Yang Toronto’s favourite market for handmade gifts is right around the corner! City of Craft was co-founded in 2007 by Jen Anisef, Leah Buckareff and Becky Johnson to increase the city’s access to – and appreciation for – contemporary craft. Since then, City of Craft has built a reputation...
