[spectre] Fwd: canadian PARACHUTE magazine suspends publication

[Andreas Broeckmann]

>  From: Joanne Tremblay <j.tremblay at parachute.ca>
>  Date: 21 November 2006 17:48:41 GMT
>  To: <halt at parachute.ca>
>  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 SˆO PAULO. PARACHUTE 125 is devoted to
>  HAVANA and will be on sale in January 2007.
>
>
>   TO REACT TO THIS ANNOUNCEMENT, PLEASE WRITE TO: halt at parachute.ca
>
>   Source: PARACHUTE, contemporary art magazine: T 514.842.9805
>
>   Press kit: www.parachute.ca
>
>   Media contact: Joanne Trem