What's On: The Centre for Incidental Activisms
What is on at The Centre for Incidental Activisms (CIA)?
The Centre for Incidental Activisms proposes an entirely new way of working with artists. This experimental project involves the Toronto artists Deanna Bowen, Eugenio Salas, and Public Studio (Eshrat Erfanian + Elle Flanders + Tamira Sawatzky) and acknowledges the back-stories to artistic production: the production of art can be a form of activism above and beyond the objects that artists make.
Rotating to highlight new projects, the CIA is changing daily! On Mondays Public Studio screen various projects, such as Kino Pravda 3G, a Youtube collection of footage bringing to the foreground current images of global discontent: From the most recent G20 protests; the Green movement in Iran; the Red Shirts in Thailand; to student protests in the UK.
On Thursdays from 12 pm noon – 2pm (except 24 February) the collective enacts three projects. Opening up an archive of hundreds of images, What Isn’t There is an ongoing project documenting Palestinian villages that have been in a constant state of ‘vanishing’ since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948.
At the heart of the CIA, a table was constructed for the purpose of meetings that were to bringing curators, artists, and community members together in collaborative scenarios under the auspices of research based art practices. As a response to the larger than life size imposition of this very stable table which can be seen as a contradiction to the semi-stable nature of art itself, and in keeping with the intention of the CIA, Public Studio rebels on all fronts by deconstructing the table. Their making and unmaking of the table is a physical manifestation of a thought process that means to symbolically return the power of art to art.
During the course of the deconstruction, Erfanian will be performing Archiving the Same and the Other, presenting a collection of images in a pseudo archival format challenging notions of the Same and the Other by constructing yet another order. Erfanian displays 5 to 10 images for the public to view then archives them in a filing cabinet in the gallery for future access.
Tuesdays and Fridays include documentation and ephemera from various projects from both Deanna Bowen and Eugenio Salas. This past summer, Deanna Bowen walked over the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama the infamous bridge in Selma, site of a violent clash between Alabama State Troopers and non-violent protesters en route to Montgomery (referred to as "Bloody Sunday.") Deconstruction of a Political Engagement (the Selma Project) is an autobiographical intervention that works to reveal and interpret Bowen's discoveries while researching Bloody Sunday and the Canadian response to the March from Selma to Montgomery in March 1965.
As a conceptually based revisionist project, Deconstruction of a Political Engagement (the Selma Project) takes advantage of the AGYU's dissemination, promotion, exhibition, and archiving strategies by covertly inserting "outsider" narratives into "mainstream" institutionalized art practices in order to artistically/actively destabilize dominant narratives about race, conflict, and self-inscription.
Eugenio Salas brings The Institute for Community Inquiry (ICI) to occupy the AGYU! The ICI is a self-managed independent group of activists, media artists, and academics working with artistic and curatorial practices to extend critical relations between art and activisms in the aftermath of the June G20 in Toronto. Sharing knowledge, production processes, and dissemination strategies is a gesture of symbolic cross-pollination, highlighting the collaboration process rather than the final outcome.
The ICI includes Madi Piller, Prisoners' Justice Action Committee (PJAC), Philippe Blanchard, No One Is Illegal, Brett Gundlock, Vid Inglevics, Martha Baillie, Andrew Lovett-Barron, LAL, Alessandra Renzi, Brian LaBelle, Eugenio Salas, Kate Milberry, Candance Mooers, and the Kawartha Food Security Farmers Network.
Sundays and Wednesdays is an open day, with a selection of all the works on view.
Putting artistic inquiry and research at the forefront, the CIA is hosting a series of screenings, panels, activities, and events. We are inviting you to join us at the table (installed in the centre of the gallery) to participate and contribute information, viewpoints, and arguments.
For a weekly schedule of events and more detailed information on the individual projects please visit http://theagyuisoutthere.org/everywhere/?tag=cia
CIA FOCUS EVENTS
Friday, March 4, time tbc
Conceptual Practice, Political Engagement, and Institutional Change (Deanna Bowen)
Moderated by Warren Crichlow with presentations by Michelle Jacques, Dot Tuer, and Krys Verrall.
Presenters have been asked to address the notion of art making as a form of writing, the intersections of political action/activism, how politics and conceptual art connect (or don't), and the implications of omitted and included narratives.
Monday, March 7, time tbc
Jenin Cinema School at the AGYU (Public Studio)
Taking you into the heart of Palestine, the Jenin Freedom Theatre’s Filmmaking Studio presents an interactive evening with the next generation of young Palestinian filmmakers.
Wednesday March 9, 4 - 8 pm
Eco Art workshop (Multimedia Art workshop with Community Arts Practice students of York University and youth in the CIA main space)
Friday March 11, 7 – 9 pm
Institute for Community Inquiry SHOW & TELL
Live performances, food, drinks, and engaging with the participants of the G20/20 sessions.
CIA Web Projects
Deanna Bowen’s website based projects for Deconstruction of a Political Engagement (The Selma Project) http://theagyuisoutthere.org/everywhere/?tag=deanna-bowen
CIA Special Projects Room
PHOTOVOICE
4 – 20 February 2011
The AGYU with the Office of the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth (OPACY), Westview Centennial Secondary School, Success Beyond Limits, and The Spot present this multi-faceted photo project.
Featuring work by Faduma Abshir, Ademola Adewusi, Marshan Beals, Melanie Halasz, Keira Herry, Noterlee Johnson, Khalid Khan, and Nana Tieku
Lost and Found: (Finding) Hidden Beauty in the Hood
1 – 13 March 2011
Opening Reception: Wednesday, March 2, 6 -9 pm
The Art Gallery of York University is pleased to present Lost and Found: (Finding) Hidden Beauty in the Hood, a group exhibition curated by The MAD Poet, aka Melissa A. Dean. Featuring art works by Cade Davies, Che Kothari, Quentin “Vercetty” Lindsay, and sun a.k.a The Real Sun, Lost and Found examines the strategies deployed by artists who are simultaneously cultural activists and community leaders.
The Art Gallery of York University is a university-affiliated public non-profit contemporary art gallery supported by York University, The Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council and our membership.
The AGYU is located in the Accolade East Building, 4700 Keele Street Toronto. Gallery hours are: Monday to Friday, 10 am–4 pm; Wednesday, 10am–8 pm; Sunday from noon–5 pm; and closed Saturday. Admission to everything is free.
Categories: Advocacy, Community Engagement
