Salon des Refusés Atlantique 2001-2010

 

The first Salon des Refusés was held in France in 1863. Works which failed to satisfy the accepted definition of "art" at that time were deemed dangerously subversive by the cultural elite and excluded from art exhibits.

 

Eventually, rejected artists persuaded Napoleon III to set up the Salon des Refusés, providing them with an opportunity to show their work. These rejected artists, including Renoir, Monet and Manet, would eventually become known as the Impressionists.

 

In celebration of the original Salon, the Salon des Refusés Atlantique, established by Des Refusés in 2001, provided a venue for video and film makers rejected by the Atlantic Film Festival to screen their work. The 10th and final Salon was held in Halifax, Nova Scotia at the Khyber Building on September 18, 2010.

 

There was no official selection of work screened at the Salon. Instead, the Salon was "programmed" by randomly drawing submitted Atlantic Film Festival rejection letters from a lottery. The pile of letters drawn at the end of the day were the works that screened at the Salon.