My Winnipeg Project
September 8, 2012–March 13, 2013
Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art
1 – 460 Portage Avenue
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3C 0E8
T +1 204 942 1043
F +1 204 944 8663
My Winnipeg, organized by Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art with multiple institutional partners, is an exhibition project presenting artwork by more than 100 artists, who have worked, lived or had an association with the city of Winnipeg. As a psycho-geographic concept, Winnipeg is the birthplace of the Métis nation and the province’s forefather Louis Riel, the 1919 General Strike, the headquarters for Harlequin Romance novels, and the childhood home of Neil Young and of Marshall McLuhan. Nonetheless, ‘Winnipeg’ resists idealization as it suffers the legacies of colonialism that include racism and child poverty. It is also the coldest large city on the planet and plagued by floods and fires. My Winnipeg, taking its name from the title of Guy Maddin’s award-winning film, brings together subjective and conflicting impressions of this mid-sized prairie capital, versions in which truth mingles with fiction, history, and speculation. The exhibition playfully and critically conjures diverse interpretations of Winnipeg through contemporary art and reference to ephemeral, archival, and historical materials. My Winnipeg depicts the city as a mytho-poetic territory of reverie, catastrophe, carnal desire, and (sub) conscious inspiration.
The exhibition will be displayed in four consecutive “chapters,” coalescing at Plug In ICA as the My Winnipeg Project, following a successful tour of France where more than 35,000 viewers witnessed the previous incarnations of the project.
The fourth chapter of the project is exclusive to Plug In ICA. The curators invited each participating artist to nominate a Winnipeg artist and one artwork by that artist to partake in My Winnipeg: The Artists’ Choice. While aimed at the collective Winnipeg imagination, the selection has no specific restrictions regarding theme, medium, or content, except the city, allowing the installation to articulate a dynamic and critical examination of My Winnipeg. Perhaps one may find compelling counter-narratives to those put forward in chapters one to three.
My Winnipeg: There’s No Place Like Home
September 8–October 7, 2012
Opening: Friday, September 7, 2012
My Winnipeg: Maps and Legends
October 27–November 25, 2012
Opening: Friday, October 26, 2012
My Winnipeg: Winter Kept Us Warm
December 15, 2012–January 20, 2013
Opening: Friday, December 14, 2012
My Winnipeg: The Artists’ Choice
February 9–March 13, 2013
Opening: Friday, February 8, 2013
The artists include: Ed Ackerman, Sharon Alward, C. Graham Asmundson, Jackson Beardy, Daniel Barrow, Louis Bakó, H. Eric Bergman, Border Crossings Study Centre, Paul Butler, Kelly Clark, Eddy Cobiness, Sharron Zenith Corne, Shawna Dempsey & Lorri Millan, Dan Donaldson, Michael Dumontier, Marcel Dzama, Cliff Eyland, Ivan Eyre, Erica Eyres, Neil Farber, Rosalie Favell, Lionel Lemoine FitzGerald, Lewis Benjamin Foote, Tim Gardner, Larry Glawson & Doug Melnyk, Gilles Hébert, Thomas Glendenning Hamilton, Alex Janvier Krisjanis Kaktins-Gorsline, Wanda Koop, Jake Kosciuk, Rob Kovitz, Guy Maddin, Bonnie Marin, Bernie Miller, Kent Monkman, Norval Morrisseau, Robert Nelson, Darryl Nepinak, Daphne Odjig, Robert Pasternak, Linda Pearce, Hope Peterson, Alex Poruchnyck and Vern Hume, Don Proch, Jon Pylypchuck, Carl Ray, Paul Robles, Mélanie Rocan, Royal Art Lodge, Joseph Sanchez, Colleen Simard, Slomotion, Kevin B.C. Stafford, Lionel McDonald Stephenson, Diana Thorneycroft, Andrew Valko, Jordan Van Sewell, Andrew Wall, Esther Warkov, Gord Wilding, Richard Williams, and Adrian Williams, among others.
My Winnipeg is co-curated by Paula Aisemberg, Sigrid Dahle, Hervé di Rosa, Noam Gonick, Anthony Kiendl, and Cathy Mattes. It is co-organized by Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art, la maison rouge, Musée International des Arts Modestes, School of Art Gallery at the University of Manitoba, and the National Arts Centre (Ottawa).
Be sure to check Plug In ICA’s website, www.plugin.org, for the complete artist list, additional programing, events, and talks during the run of My Winnipeg (September 2012 through March 2013).
Plug In gratefully acknowledges the ongoing support of the Winnipeg Arts Council, the Manitoba Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, the Department of Canadian Heritage, The Winnipeg Foundation, supporters, members and volunteers.
