Institutions by Artists Speakers

  1. Jennifer Cane (Canada)
    Cane is a curator and writer based in Vancouver. She has curated exhibitions such as _The Wild so Close_ at the Or Gallery, the online exhibition _Arcadian Arrow_, and the touring film screening _The World Anew_. An upcoming exhibition for the Yukon Arts Centre, _Sleep of Reason_, investigates historical and contemporary notions of the “artist as dreamer”. Her research interests centre around authenticity, social history, as well as labour and leisure culture. She holds an MA in Critical and Curatorial Studies from the University of British Columbia and a BFA in Art History from Concordia University in Montréal.Cane is a curator and writer based in Vancouver. She has curated exhibitions such as _The Wild so Close_ at the Or Gallery, the online exhibition _Arcadian Arrow_, and the touring film screening _The World Anew_. An upcoming exhibition for the Yukon Arts Centre, _Sleep of Reason_, investigates historical and contemporary notions of the “artist as dreamer”. Her research interests centre around authenticity, social history, as well as labour and leisure culture. She holds an MA in Critical and Curatorial Studies from the University of British Columbia and a BFA in Art History from Concordia University in Montréal.
  2. Al Razutis (Canada)
    Active since the late 1960s, Razutis is a multimedia artist, educator, and innovator in motion-picture film and video, stereoscopic 3D video, holographic technologies and arts, and web-digital graphics for websites and virtual reality. In 1981, the filmmaker, along with Susan Ditta, Director of the Canadian Images Festival; David Bierk, manager of the screening space; and Ian McLachlin, a member of the Cineworks board, was charged with “Violation of the Theatres Act” for exhibiting a film that “had not been approved by the Board of Censors” of Canada. Then a fledgling organization, Cineworks organized a national tour of its films (including _A Message From Our Sponsor_) and boycotted any exhibition house that censored any one of the films included in its touring program. Continuing a categorical anti-censorship tradition initiated by the filmmakers of the National Gallery's Series IV, Cineworks’ anti-censorship campaign underscores the pivotal role artist-run coalitions have played in the establishment and enforcement of legal standards and codes within a larger social context.Active since the late 1960s, Razutis is a multimedia artist, educator, and innovator in motion-picture film and video, stereoscopic 3D video, holographic technologies and arts, and web-digital graphics for websites and virtual reality. In 1981, the filmmaker, along with Susan Ditta, Director of the Canadian Images Festival; David Bierk, manager of the screening space; and Ian McLachlin, a member of the Cineworks board, was charged with “Violation of the Theatres Act” for exhibiting a film that “had not been approved by the Board of Censors” of Canada. Then a fledgling organization, Cineworks organized a national tour of its films (including _A Message From Our Sponsor_) and boycotted any exhibition house that censored any one of the films included in its touring program. Continuing a categorical anti-censorship tradition initiated by the filmmakers of the National Gallery's Series IV, Cineworks’ anti-censorship campaign underscores the pivotal role artist-run coalitions have played in the establishment and enforcement of legal standards and codes within a larger social context.
  3. Gabi Ngcobo (South Africa)
    A curator, educator, and artist, Ngcobo is also founder of the Johannesburg-based independent platform, the Center for Historical Reenactments (CHR). CHR employs citations, transversal research processes, subversion, and mediation; approaches that seek to promote dialogue between artistic practices in order to reveal how certain histories are formed or formulated, repeated, universalized, and preserved within these practices. CHR recognizes historical reenactments as providing spaces for the politicization of histories within artistic contexts. CHR engages local (South African) and international practitioners through events, presentations, and seminars that critique presentation models, as well as raise questions about the political potentials in artistic interpretations of histories. Recent CHR projects include _PASS-AGES: references & footnotes_ (2010) at the old Pass Office (Johannesburg) and the ongoing _Xenoglossia_, a research project, which recently travelled to the 11th Lyon Biennale (2011), and _Na Ku Randza_ a series of site specific public interventions in collaboration with the Goethe Institut, Johannesburg.A curator, educator, and artist, Ngcobo is also founder of the Johannesburg-based independent platform, the Center for Historical Reenactments (CHR). CHR employs citations, transversal research processes, subversion, and mediation; approaches that seek to promote dialogue between artistic practices in order to reveal how certain histories are formed or formulated, repeated, universalized, and preserved within these practices. CHR recognizes historical reenactments as providing spaces for the politicization of histories within artistic contexts. CHR engages local (South African) and international practitioners through events, presentations, and seminars that critique presentation models, as well as raise questions about the political potentials in artistic interpretations of histories. Recent CHR projects include _PASS-AGES: references & footnotes_ (2010) at the old Pass Office (Johannesburg) and the ongoing _Xenoglossia_, a research project, which recently travelled to the 11th Lyon Biennale (2011), and _Na Ku Randza_ a series of site specific public interventions in collaboration with the Goethe Institut, Johannesburg.
  4. Louise Hervé and Chloé Maillet (France)
    As the I.I.I.I (International Institute for Important Items), Hervé and Maillet create performance-lectures that blend and draw from multiple sources, including science fiction, genre movies, autonomous objects, academic discourse, and anecdotes. Their work, _In which the Diorama is set on Fire_ (2011), has been presented at FRAC Champagne Ardenne (Reims), and other projects at the Palais de Tokyo, the Musée d'art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, and Centre Pompidou. Current projects include an exhibition for Synagogue de Delme, Kunstverein Braunschweig, and Kunsthaus Glarus. I.I.I.I is represented by Marcelle Alix in Paris. Hervé holds a MA and DNSEP from l'Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Arts de Cergy while Maillet holds a PhD in Anthropological History from l’Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris.As the I.I.I.I (International Institute for Important Items), Hervé and Maillet create performance-lectures that blend and draw from multiple sources, including science fiction, genre movies, autonomous objects, academic discourse, and anecdotes. Their work, _In which the Diorama is set on Fire_ (2011), has been presented at FRAC Champagne Ardenne (Reims), and other projects at the Palais de Tokyo, the Musée d'art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, and Centre Pompidou. Current projects include an exhibition for Synagogue de Delme, Kunstverein Braunschweig, and Kunsthaus Glarus. I.I.I.I is represented by Marcelle Alix in Paris. Hervé holds a MA and DNSEP from l'Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Arts de Cergy while Maillet holds a PhD in Anthropological History from l’Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris.
  5. Vincent Bonin (Canada)
    A Montreal-based independent critic and curator, Bonin has developed multi-faceted and wide-ranging projects including _Documentary Protocols_ (1967-1975), an exhibition and publication presented by the Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery at Concordia University from 2007 to 2008 that examined the administrative ethos in artistic practices of the 1960s and 1970s in Canada. He is currently co-curator of _“Materializing “Six Years”: Lucy R. Lippard and the Emergence of Conceptual Art_ at the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum and co-curator of the Montreal section of the traveling exhibition _Traffic: Conceptual Art in Canada 1965-1980_. Among his expertise and research interests are conceptual art practices of the 1960s and 1970s, the social meaning of archives, and the refashioning of the documentary genre in the field of contemporary art. Bonin is the author of “Here, Bad News Arrives Too Late…Years Too Late,” published by Fillip in _Institutions by Artists: Volume 1_.A Montreal-based independent critic and curator, Bonin has developed multi-faceted and wide-ranging projects including _Documentary Protocols_ (1967-1975), an exhibition and publication presented by the Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery at Concordia University from 2007 to 2008 that examined the administrative ethos in artistic practices of the 1960s and 1970s in Canada. He is currently co-curator of _“Materializing “Six Years”: Lucy R. Lippard and the Emergence of Conceptual Art_ at the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum and co-curator of the Montreal section of the traveling exhibition _Traffic: Conceptual Art in Canada 1965-1980_. Among his expertise and research interests are conceptual art practices of the 1960s and 1970s, the social meaning of archives, and the refashioning of the documentary genre in the field of contemporary art. Bonin is the author of “Here, Bad News Arrives Too Late…Years Too Late,” published by Fillip in _Institutions by Artists: Volume 1_.
  6. AA Bronson (Canada/USA)
    AA Bronson is an artist living and working in New York City and Fire Island Pines. In the Sixties, he left university with a group of friends to found a group of alternative institutions: a free school, a free store, a commune, and an underground newspaper. This led him into an adventure with gestalt therapy, radical education, and independent publishing. In 1969 he formed the artists’ group General Idea with Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal and for the next 25 years they lived and worked together to produce the living artwork of their being together, undertaking over 100 solo exhibitions, and countless group shows and temporary public art projects. They were known for their magazine FILE (1972-1989), their unrelenting production of low-cost multiples, and their early involvement in artist-run culture, punk, queer theory, AIDS activism, and other manifestations of the other. In 1974 they founded Art Metropole, Toronto, a distribution centre and archive for artists’ books, audio, video, and multiples, which they conceived as the shop and archive for their Gesamtkunstwerk: _The 1984 Miss General Idea Pavillion_, a kind of meta-museum. AA Bronson directed Art Metropole from 1974 through 1986, leading him to write “The Humiliation of the Bureaucrat,” one of the canonical texts on Canadian artist-run culture.

    From 1987 through 1994, General Idea focused their work on the subject of AIDS. Since his partners died in 1994, AA has produced work focused on the subject of death, grieving, and healing, most recently his performance series _Invocation of the Queer Spirits_.

    From 2004 to 2010 he was the Director of Printed Matter, Inc. in New York City, founding the annual NY Art Book Fair in 2005, of which he is now Director. He also founded and co-directs the Institute for Art, Religion, and Social Justice at Union Theological Seminary. He has taught at UCLA, the University of Toronto, and the Yale School of Art, but he dreams of founding AA Bronson’s School for Young Shamans, and a return to his roots in radical education.

    AA Bronson’s work is dominated by the practice of collaboration and consensus. From his beginnings in a free school and commune, through his 25 years as one of the artists of General Idea, in his deep involvement with founding and developing collaborative and social structures such as Art Metropole, the NY Art Book Fair, and AA Bronson’s School for Young Shamans, and through his current collaborations with younger generations, he has focused on the politics of decision-making and on living life radically as social sculpture.AA Bronson is an artist living and working in New York City and Fire Island Pines. In the Sixties, he left university with a group of friends to found a group of alternative institutions: a free school, a free store, a commune, and an underground newspaper. This led him into an adventure with gestalt therapy, radical education, and independent publishing. In 1969 he formed the artists’ group General Idea with Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal and for the next 25 years they lived and worked together to produce the living artwork of their being together, undertaking over 100 solo exhibitions, and countless group shows and temporary public art projects. They were known for their magazine FILE (1972-1989), their unrelenting production of low-cost multiples, and their early involvement in artist-run culture, punk, queer theory, AIDS activism, and other manifestations of the other. In 1974 they founded Art Metropole, Toronto, a distribution centre and archive for artists’ books, audio, video, and multiples, which they conceived as the shop and archive for their Gesamtkunstwerk: _The 1984 Miss General Idea Pavillion_, a kind of meta-museum. AA Bronson directed Art Metropole from 1974 through 1986, leading him to write “The Humiliation of the Bureaucrat,” one of the canonical texts on Canadian artist-run culture.

    From 1987 through 1994, General Idea focused their work on the subject of AIDS. Since his partners died in 1994, AA has produced work focused on the subject of death, grieving, and healing, most recently his performance series _Invocation of the Queer Spirits_.

    From 2004 to 2010 he was the Director of Printed Matter, Inc. in New York City, founding the annual NY Art Book Fair in 2005, of which he is now Director. He also founded and co-directs the Institute for Art, Religion, and Social Justice at Union Theological Seminary. He has taught at UCLA, the University of Toronto, and the Yale School of Art, but he dreams of founding AA Bronson’s School for Young Shamans, and a return to his roots in radical education.

    AA Bronson’s work is dominated by the practice of collaboration and consensus. From his beginnings in a free school and commune, through his 25 years as one of the artists of General Idea, in his deep involvement with founding and developing collaborative and social structures such as Art Metropole, the NY Art Book Fair, and AA Bronson’s School for Young Shamans, and through his current collaborations with younger generations, he has focused on the politics of decision-making and on living life radically as social sculpture.
  7. Eva Weinmayr (Germany)
    Weinmayr is a London-based artist known for work on Art in Ruins, the now defunct London-based art collective whose practice formed around iconoclastic efforts targeting the politics and economics of the art world. By enacting a reconstructed history of Art in Ruins through the use of non-actors and informal, improvised staging, Weinmayr has created occasions for the re-consideration of presumably forgotten or neglected events and ensembles. Weinmayr's selected recent exhibitions include projects at MOT International (London), the 5th Berlin Biennale, Yama (Istanbul), Contemporary Art Museum St Louis, Kunstverein Wolfsburg, Revolver Showroom (Frankfurt), and Kunstraum Munich. Invested in the behaviour of written and spoken language, Weinmayr’s work addresses systems for immediate communication and ranges from interactive readings and performances to publications and films as well as gallery based installations and activities. She has published several artists’ books and is the co-director of AND Publishing, a platform that explores print on demand technologies and publishes conceptually driven artists' books. Together with Andrea Francke she is running The Piracy Project as part of AND Publishing’s programme.Weinmayr is a London-based artist known for work on Art in Ruins, the now defunct London-based art collective whose practice formed around iconoclastic efforts targeting the politics and economics of the art world. By enacting a reconstructed history of Art in Ruins through the use of non-actors and informal, improvised staging, Weinmayr has created occasions for the re-consideration of presumably forgotten or neglected events and ensembles. Weinmayr's selected recent exhibitions include projects at MOT International (London), the 5th Berlin Biennale, Yama (Istanbul), Contemporary Art Museum St Louis, Kunstverein Wolfsburg, Revolver Showroom (Frankfurt), and Kunstraum Munich. Invested in the behaviour of written and spoken language, Weinmayr’s work addresses systems for immediate communication and ranges from interactive readings and performances to publications and films as well as gallery based installations and activities. She has published several artists’ books and is the co-director of AND Publishing, a platform that explores print on demand technologies and publishes conceptually driven artists' books. Together with Andrea Francke she is running The Piracy Project as part of AND Publishing’s programme.
  8. Marie-Josée Jean (Canada)
    Marie-Josée Jean will present a new work entitled _The Unmaking of Art_ on behalf of “Walter Benjamin,” an anonymous artist from the former Yugoslavia known for projects such as _Mondrian '63-'96_ (1987), a 25 minute video featuring a Walter Benjamin impostor lecturing on the value of Mondrian copies in English with Serbo-Croatian subtitles. Previous iterations of _The Unmaking of Art_ include a performance in Chinese at the Guangdong Times Museum (Guangzhou) and in English at the Arnolfini (Bristol).

    Marie-Josée Jean is Director of VOX, a Montreal-based centre for the presentation of the contemporary image. She is also an instructor in Art History at Université du Québec à Montréal. Jean was General and Artistic Director of the 6th and 7th editions of le Mois de la Photo in Montréal, entitled: _Le Souci du document_ (1999) and _Le Pouvoir de l'image_ (2001). Her exhibitions have been presented across Quebec and in Europe, notably at the Santa Monica Art Centre in Barcelona, the Nederlands Foto Institute (Rotterdam), Casino Luxembourg: Forum d'art contemporain as well as the Tinglado Contemporary Art Centre (Tarragona). She is the author of multiple essays on photography and contemporary art and editor of a variety of publications.Marie-Josée Jean will present a new work entitled _The Unmaking of Art_ on behalf of “Walter Benjamin,” an anonymous artist from the former Yugoslavia known for projects such as _Mondrian '63-'96_ (1987), a 25 minute video featuring a Walter Benjamin impostor lecturing on the value of Mondrian copies in English with Serbo-Croatian subtitles. Previous iterations of _The Unmaking of Art_ include a performance in Chinese at the Guangdong Times Museum (Guangzhou) and in English at the Arnolfini (Bristol).

    Marie-Josée Jean is Director of VOX, a Montreal-based centre for the presentation of the contemporary image. She is also an instructor in Art History at Université du Québec à Montréal. Jean was General and Artistic Director of the 6th and 7th editions of le Mois de la Photo in Montréal, entitled: _Le Souci du document_ (1999) and _Le Pouvoir de l'image_ (2001). Her exhibitions have been presented across Quebec and in Europe, notably at the Santa Monica Art Centre in Barcelona, the Nederlands Foto Institute (Rotterdam), Casino Luxembourg: Forum d'art contemporain as well as the Tinglado Contemporary Art Centre (Tarragona). She is the author of multiple essays on photography and contemporary art and editor of a variety of publications.
  9. Walter Benjamin (Germany)
    Walter Benjamin was an important philosopher and art theoretician best known for his work _Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction_ (1935). Many years after his tragic death (1940) he reappeared in public with the lecture _Mondrian '63 -'96_ organized 1986 by the Marxist Center in Ljubljana. The same lecture was filmed in English in 1987 and broadcasted on the Belgrade television. Since then he has has given interviews and published several articles on museums and art history. In September 2011 “Walter Benjamin” appeared in public with the lecture _The Unmaking of Art_ held in Chinese at the Times Museum in Guangzhou. The same lecture, this time in English, was presented at the Arnolfini in Bristol.Walter Benjamin was an important philosopher and art theoretician best known for his work _Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction_ (1935). Many years after his tragic death (1940) he reappeared in public with the lecture _Mondrian '63 -'96_ organized 1986 by the Marxist Center in Ljubljana. The same lecture was filmed in English in 1987 and broadcasted on the Belgrade television. Since then he has has given interviews and published several articles on museums and art history. In September 2011 “Walter Benjamin” appeared in public with the lecture _The Unmaking of Art_ held in Chinese at the Times Museum in Guangzhou. The same lecture, this time in English, was presented at the Arnolfini in Bristol.
  10. Candice Hopkins (Canada)
    Hopkins is the Elizabeth Simonfay Curatorial Resident, Indigenous Art, at the National Gallery of Canada and is the former director and curator of the exhibitions program at the Western Front in Vancouver. Her recent curatorial projects include _Close Encounters: The Next 500 Years_ (2011), a multi-venue exhibition in Winnipeg co-curated with Steve Loft, Jenny Western, and Lee-Ann Martin; _Recipes for an Encounter_ (2010), co-curated with Berin Golonu for Dorsky Gallery (New York), and _Restaging the Encounter_, 2011 edition of Nuit Blanche (Toronto). Hopkins has an MA from the Center for Curatorial Studies and Art in Contemporary Culture at Bard College, where she was awarded the Ramapo Curatorial Prize for the exhibition _Every Stone Tells a Story: The Performance Work of David Hammons and Jimmie Durham_ (2004). Her writing has appeared in texts published by MIT Press, BlackDog Publishing, Revolver, New York University, Fillip, Banff Centre Press, and National Museum of the American Indian, among others. Hopkins has lectured at venues including the Witte de With, Tate Modern, Dakar Biennale, Tate Britain, University of British Columbia, and University of Victoria.Hopkins is the Elizabeth Simonfay Curatorial Resident, Indigenous Art, at the National Gallery of Canada and is the former director and curator of the exhibitions program at the Western Front in Vancouver. Her recent curatorial projects include _Close Encounters: The Next 500 Years_ (2011), a multi-venue exhibition in Winnipeg co-curated with Steve Loft, Jenny Western, and Lee-Ann Martin; _Recipes for an Encounter_ (2010), co-curated with Berin Golonu for Dorsky Gallery (New York), and _Restaging the Encounter_, 2011 edition of Nuit Blanche (Toronto). Hopkins has an MA from the Center for Curatorial Studies and Art in Contemporary Culture at Bard College, where she was awarded the Ramapo Curatorial Prize for the exhibition _Every Stone Tells a Story: The Performance Work of David Hammons and Jimmie Durham_ (2004). Her writing has appeared in texts published by MIT Press, BlackDog Publishing, Revolver, New York University, Fillip, Banff Centre Press, and National Museum of the American Indian, among others. Hopkins has lectured at venues including the Witte de With, Tate Modern, Dakar Biennale, Tate Britain, University of British Columbia, and University of Victoria.
  11. Isabelle Pauwels (Canada)
    Isabelle Pauwels is a Vancouver-based artist working in video, performance, and installation often engaging in themes of alienation, secrecy, and scandal. Pauwels’ work explores how narrative structures shape our emotional and moral experience. Her interests include hybrid cultural forms, prosumer production, the early history of television and film, and narratives of colonial-era exploration. She has exhibited locally and internationally in solo and group shows at the Contemporary Art Gallery (Vancouver), Henry Art Gallery (Seattle), Power Plant (Toronto), Signal (Malmo), and Witte de With (Rotterdam). In 2007, she won the VIVA award. She is represented by Catriona Jeffries Gallery (Vancouver).Isabelle Pauwels is a Vancouver-based artist working in video, performance, and installation often engaging in themes of alienation, secrecy, and scandal. Pauwels’ work explores how narrative structures shape our emotional and moral experience. Her interests include hybrid cultural forms, prosumer production, the early history of television and film, and narratives of colonial-era exploration. She has exhibited locally and internationally in solo and group shows at the Contemporary Art Gallery (Vancouver), Henry Art Gallery (Seattle), Power Plant (Toronto), Signal (Malmo), and Witte de With (Rotterdam). In 2007, she won the VIVA award. She is represented by Catriona Jeffries Gallery (Vancouver).
  12. Jonathan Middleton (Canada)
    Middleton is an artist and curator based in Vancouver. His practice employs methodologies of comedy and institutional practices to explore interests in language and politics. His work has been exhibited in Vancouver at the Contemporary Art Gallery, Western Front, Or Gallery, and Tracey Lawrence Gallery, and in film festivals across North America. Between 1999 and 2005, he served as co-curator, then director/curator of the Western Front Exhibitions Program and has curated and co-curated projects in Montreal, Seattle, Hong Kong, Berlin, Melbourne, and Cultus Lake. Middleton was a founding member of the Projectile Publishing Society and its more recent art periodical _Fillip_, and continues to serve as chair of the society’s board of directors. Middleton has also served on the boards of Artspeak, the Pacific Association of Artist-run Centres (PAARC), and the Artist-run Centres and Collectives Conference (ARCA). He was founding editor/manager of the online artist-run resource site ArcPost.ca, and co-founder of the Strathcona neighbourhood art space, The Bodgers’ and Kludger’s Co-operative Art Parlour. In 2007, Middleton was appointed director/curator of the Or Gallery and in 2010 established the gallery’s Berlin satellite space, Or Gallery Berlin.Middleton is an artist and curator based in Vancouver. His practice employs methodologies of comedy and institutional practices to explore interests in language and politics. His work has been exhibited in Vancouver at the Contemporary Art Gallery, Western Front, Or Gallery, and Tracey Lawrence Gallery, and in film festivals across North America. Between 1999 and 2005, he served as co-curator, then director/curator of the Western Front Exhibitions Program and has curated and co-curated projects in Montreal, Seattle, Hong Kong, Berlin, Melbourne, and Cultus Lake. Middleton was a founding member of the Projectile Publishing Society and its more recent art periodical _Fillip_, and continues to serve as chair of the society’s board of directors. Middleton has also served on the boards of Artspeak, the Pacific Association of Artist-run Centres (PAARC), and the Artist-run Centres and Collectives Conference (ARCA). He was founding editor/manager of the online artist-run resource site ArcPost.ca, and co-founder of the Strathcona neighbourhood art space, The Bodgers’ and Kludger’s Co-operative Art Parlour. In 2007, Middleton was appointed director/curator of the Or Gallery and in 2010 established the gallery’s Berlin satellite space, Or Gallery Berlin.