Tristan Tondino

Tristan Tondino (born July 3, 1961) is a Canadian filmmaker and artist^[1] living in Montreal, Quebec. He is the son of painter Gentile Tondino. He has also worked as a charge scenic artist, art director and screenwriter.^[2][3]

Artist

Tondino, who considers his work as a visual artist to be a form of irrealism, has had a number of exhibitions in an attempt to promote his views on irrealism.^[2]

One of Tondino's canvasses, consisting entirely of text, questions why entire societies ignore certain realities: "On any given day, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, approximately 35,600 children die of starvation. This tragedy does not make the six o’clock news. Approximately 13 million children die of starvation every year, never making it to OUR reality." (...) "When we are told to deal with reality, we are essentially being told to accept an ideology." ^[4]

“(Reality) must be created, opening one’s own universe (...) to other realities, enlarging the concept of human rights (...)."^[5]

Tondino is listed in "Artists in Canada, a Union list of Artists’ Files" at the National Gallery of Canada Library, Canadian Heritage.

Notable works

On February 2, 2002, Tondino created a painting representing a Canadian 5-dollar bill (featuring the kingfisher) with the serial number ANR2312049 that he titled Where Is It?. The painting included the statement "I spent this 5 Dollar Bill on Feb 02 2002." Tondino then began to hang posters offering a $1000 reward to the person who found the bill.^[2][6] The story was picked up by The Montreal Gazette’s Bill Brownstein, The Suburban’s Bernie Mendelman, The Hour, CBC radio and Raymond Saint-Pierre of Radio Canada.^[6][7]

A second painting was created representing the newly released 5-dollar bill (featuring the children at play), entitled Where Is It II. This was donated to The Trevor C. Williams Kids Foundation,^[8] and was sold at Empire Auction to an unknown buyer.^[6]

In 2008, Tondino was invited by designer Yves Jean Lacasse to prepare painted clothing for Manneken-Pis on the occasion of the 400 anniversary of Quebec ^[9]

Exhibitions

Tondino has had over 50 exhibitions nationally and internationally.

• Irreality (2001)
• Irrealite (2004)
• Salón de la Plástica Mexicana (2008)^[3]
• Evoke/Icon (2009)
• eSpaces Temps (2010)

Film

Tondino was the art director for Someone is Watching. He has worked on over 150 film and theatre productions, including Le Confessional, Jesus de Montreal, The Whole Nine Yards, and Where the Money Is.^[10]

Tondino co-authored and co-directed a short film about World War 1 titled Crainte et tremblement, which premiered at the Montreal World Film Festival in 2012. Crainte et tremblement was available on Radio Canada's website ici.tou.tv from 2012 until 2015.

Collections

His work was refused by The National Gallery of Canada, Musée d’art Contemporian de Montreal, the MOMA and The Metropolitan Museum as part of an artwork entitled “The Refused”.

His collections can be found in Air Canada, The Royal Bank of Canada, Pratt and Whitney, Reader’s Digest, Brasserie McAuslan Brewing, Richard Monette, Casa Italia, Paul Kastel, Amel Chamandy, and Gilden Inc.^[11]

Education and affiliations

Tondino received his Bachelor of Arts in philosophy at McGill University in 1985 and his MA in philosophy at University of Montreal.

He is a member of Montreal Film Group, La Raza Group, SARTEC, IATSE and AQTIS.

Philosophy

As a philosopher, Tondino ^[12] is predominantly influenced by Noam Chomsky, Michel Seymour, and James McGilvray.^[13]

References