<nettime> Fwd: Suspension de PARACHUTE / PARACHUTE suspends its publication

[Garrett Lynch <lists@asquare.org>]

The very sad demise of parachute - email parachute at halt@parachute.ca 
to react to this.


Begin forwarded message:

> From: Joanne Tremblay <j.tremblay@parachute.ca>
> Date: 21 November 2006 17:48:41 GMT
> To: <halt@parachute.ca>
> Subject: Suspension de PARACHUTE / PARACHUTE suspends its publication

  <French version deleted @ nettime>

>
>
>  Press Release
>  For Immediate Release
>   
> THE CONTEMPORARY ART MAGAZINE
>  PARACHUTE SUSPENDS PUBLICATION
>
>  Montreal, 20 November 2006 ? 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 journal?s 
> presence on the contemporary art scene and to continue operations, 
> PARACHUTE?s 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 PARACHUTE?s exceptional longevity in a highly competitive 
> milieu ? a longevity owing to the enthusiasm of its contributors and 
> readers and to the unflagging determination of its director ? 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 journal?s readers appearing in PARACHUTE 125 in 
> January 2007, Chantal Pontbriand, director, writes:
>
>  ?When 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.?
>
>  PARACHUTE?s board of directors and director would like to extend 
> their warm thanks to all those who contributed to the journal?s 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, PARACHUTE?s 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 ? 5,000 
> copies, PARACHUTE can be found in more than forty countries and in the 
> libraries of the world?s 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 volée 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 ?emerging? cities such as MEXICO 
> CITY, BEIRUT, SHANGHAI and SÃO PAULO. PARACHUTE 125 is devoted to 
> HAVANA and will be on sale in January 2007.
>
>
>  TO REACT TO THIS ANNOUNCEMENT, PLEASE WRITE TO: halt@parachute.ca
>
>  Source: PARACHUTE, contemporary art magazine: T 514.842.9805
>
>  Press kit: www.parachute.ca
>
>  Media contact: Joanne Trem

a+
gar
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