Tristan Tondino

Tristan Tondino
Tristan Tondino photo circa 2014
Born	(1961-07-03) July 3, 1961 (age 56) Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Nationality	Canadian
Known for	multimedia artist and writer

Tristan Tondino (born July 3, 1961) is a Canadian filmmaker and artist living in Montreal, Quebec.

Tristan Tondino was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1961. He is the son of painter Gentile Tondino and Livia Martucci, brother of Guido and Lisa Tondino, is married to Joséane Brunelle, and is the cousin of Richard Monette. Tondino has also worked as a charge scenic artist, art director and screenwriter.

Tondino, considers his work as a visual artist to be a form of irrealism.

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."

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

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

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. 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.

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, and was sold at Empire Auction to an unknown buyer.