Get Hold of This Space
A Geography of Conceptual Art in Canada
February 7–April 25, 2014
Opening: February 6
Canadian Cultural Centre
5 rue de Constantine
75007 Paris
France
Hours: Monday–Friday 10am–6pm
Free admission
T+ 33 1 44 43 21 90
www.canada-culture.org
Twitter
Coordinating curator: Barbara Fischer
Associate curator: Catherine Bédard
The Canadian Cultural Centre presents, in two successive parts, a major exhibition on the conceptual art that 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.
Over fifty artists and collectives are featured, including Carole Condé and Karl Beveridge, General Idea, Raymond Gervais, Rodney Graham, Image Bank (Michael Morris and Vincent Trasov), Garry Neill Kennedy, N.E. Thing Co., Rober Racine, Michael Snow, Françoise Sullivan, Ian Wallace and Joyce Wieland, as well as American and European artists who had produced important works in Canada during this period (Lawrence Weiner, Hans Haacke, Dennis Oppenheim, John Baldessari, Jan Dibbets, David Askevold…).
The first part focuses on the criticism of institutions and the development of networks, particular via magazines and exhibition centres managed by the artists themselves. It shows various types of artistic practice that abandons the traditional forms of art, confronting both artist and viewer with reflection, performance, commitment, utopia and irony, not to mention ennui and humour. The second part of the exhibition, presented from May 17 onward, will explore the political, cultural and social dimensions of the geographical distance specific to Canada.
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). 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.
