calendario eventi  :: 

X

19/5/2014

Get Hold of This Space

Canadian Cultural Centre, Paris

The Canadian Cultural Centre presents, in two successive parts, a major exhibition on conceptual art as it developed in Canada, from the East Coast to West Coast but also in the Arctic Circle, between 1960 and 1980. Comprising works and archival documents from major museums, artists’ personal archives and private collections, this exhibition is a fresh new look at the diversity of contemporary art in Canada as well as at the various centres and out-of-the-way places where it was made.

For the first time in France, “Get Hold of This Space”: A Geography of Conceptual Art in Canada presents a selective focus on artists’ contribution in Canada, whose vast territories, cultural diversity, and artistic networks led to multiple experiments forming a complex identity and an exceptional ensemble whose artistic impact may now be measured nationally and internationally.

Canadian conceptual art tackled many issues linked to geography, politics, the body, language, institutions and the definition of art itself. These questions were the object of a large-scale exhibition, Traffic: Conceptual Art in Canada 1965–1980, which traveled across Canada between 2010 and 2012. An adaptation of this exhibition was recently presented at the Badischer Kunstverein of Karlsruhe, Germany. Reconfiguring the German version of the exhibition, the Canadian Cultural Centre has focused on two distinct aspects of history that constitute the two parts of the exhibition.

The second part of the exhibition now explores the political, cultural and social dimensions of the geographical distance specific to Canada. We see how artists were led to explore new forms of communication and transmission in order to expand beyond provincial and international borders, prefiguring the connectivity and current proliferation of globalized networks.

Subtitled “Landscape, Site, Geography”, this part includes works and archival documents by artists such as David Askevold, Wallace Brannen, Daniel Buren, Melvin Charney, Greg Curnoe, Jean-Marie Delavalle, Christos Dikeakos, Dean Ellis, John Greer, General Idea (AA Bronson, Felix Partz, Jorge Zontal), Rodney Graham, Image Bank (Michael Morris, Vincent Trasov), Carole Itter, Richards Jarden, Robert Kleyn, Gordon Lebredt, Glenn Lewis, Ken Lum, Allan Harding MacKay, Ian Murray, N.E. Thing Co. (Iain Baxter, Ingrid Baxter), Dennis Oppenheim, Harold Pearse, Michael Snow, Françoise Sullivan, Bill Vazan, Jeff Wall, Ian Wallace, Theodore Wan, Paul Woodrow, and Tim Zuck.

The title “Get Hold of This Space” was inspired by a key 1974 work by Gordon Lebredt, which is featured in both parts of the exhibition.

The exhibition was conceived by Barbara Fischer (Director, Justina Barnicke Gallery/University of Toronto), Grant Arnold (Curator, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver), Vincent Bonin (Independent curator, Montreal), Catherine Crowston (Director, Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton), Michèle Thériault (Director, Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Montreal) and Jayne Wark (Professor, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University, Halifax).

The first part, presented from February 7 until April 25, focused on the criticism of institutions and the development of networks, via magazines and exhibition centres managed by the artists themselves. Subtitled “Studio to Business/Institutions and media by artists/Art, idea, technologies”, it showed various types of artistic practice that had abandoned the traditional forms of art and looked at the infiltration of art into the world of business and public spaces.

This exhibition has benefited from the support of the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery/University of Toronto, the Badischer Kunstverein (Karlsruhe), the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.

Image: Michael Snow, Venetian Blind, détail, 1970, Banque d’œuvres d’art du Conseil des Arts du Canada, Ottawa Courtesy of Banque d’œuvres d’art du Conseil des Arts du Canada, Ottawa

Press Contact : Jean Baptiste Le Bescam
jean-baptiste.lebescam@international.gc.ca / +33 (0)1 44 43 21
48 Canadian Cultural Centre, 5 rue de Constantine, 75007 Paris
www.canada-culture.org

Opening, May 17, 2014 as part of “Nuit europénne des Musées”, 6 p.m.to 2 a.m. / Free admission

Canadian Cultural Centre
5, rue de Constantine - 75007 Paris
Opening Hours :
Free entrance, Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

stampa

permanent link