Symposium Report: We, Ourselves and Us
Ort: Toronto
Ereignis: Das Goethe-Institut Toronto als Mitveranstalter des zweitägigen Symposiums über Poltik und Identitäten sozialer Gemeinschaften in der Power Plant.
[…] “We, Ourselves and Us”, a January 24 symposium in Toronto on the idea of community, recent political fissures and hopes for renewal offered a wide backdrop […] (The symposium was held by the Power Plant in concert with the journal Public and the Goethe-Institut Toronto.) Following a keynote lecture on Friday night by New School philospher Simon Critchley, a Saturday session kicked off with a talk by Nina Möntmann, Stockholm-based curator of “If We Can’t Get It Together,” the Power Plant’s winter exhibition on community themes. Möntmann noted she found herself intrigued by “dis/membered communities, communities of people who have no community.” […] Toronto artist Luis Jacob, also featured in Möntmann’s exhibition, focused on the necessity of historical continuity and knowledge in building a community. More specifically, Jacob said “historical continuity is the achilles heel of the Toronto art community,” and called for more exhibitions and texts—like AA Bronson’s “From Sea to Shining Sea”—that brought the past into the present. At the same time […] he advocated for a more generationally and geographically networked understanding of Toronto art […] Power Plant public programs curator Jon Davies took to the stage to present on the ways that gossip can be used in creating an arts scene. […] Jacob and Davies seemed to agree that they preferred “culture by mouth” rather than “culture by media”—that is, culture and community created by face to face contact rather than third-party reports. Both also noted that they found queer communities particularly adept at intergenerational transfer of information and knowledge. […] The symposium closed with a reception at the Power Plant, which besides Möntmann’s exhibition features two other shows riffing on the idea of community and network: […] It’s an open question whether the symposium’s 100-some attendees—curators, students, artists and writers being their own form of “community without community”—felt a suitable balance of cohesion and isolation following the event.
Ereignis: Das Goethe-Institut Toronto als Mitveranstalter des zweitägigen Symposiums über Poltik und Identitäten sozialer Gemeinschaften in der Power Plant.
[…] “We, Ourselves and Us”, a January 24 symposium in Toronto on the idea of community, recent political fissures and hopes for renewal offered a wide backdrop […] (The symposium was held by the Power Plant in concert with the journal Public and the Goethe-Institut Toronto.) Following a keynote lecture on Friday night by New School philospher Simon Critchley, a Saturday session kicked off with a talk by Nina Möntmann, Stockholm-based curator of “If We Can’t Get It Together,” the Power Plant’s winter exhibition on community themes. Möntmann noted she found herself intrigued by “dis/membered communities, communities of people who have no community.” […] Toronto artist Luis Jacob, also featured in Möntmann’s exhibition, focused on the necessity of historical continuity and knowledge in building a community. More specifically, Jacob said “historical continuity is the achilles heel of the Toronto art community,” and called for more exhibitions and texts—like AA Bronson’s “From Sea to Shining Sea”—that brought the past into the present. At the same time […] he advocated for a more generationally and geographically networked understanding of Toronto art […] Power Plant public programs curator Jon Davies took to the stage to present on the ways that gossip can be used in creating an arts scene. […] Jacob and Davies seemed to agree that they preferred “culture by mouth” rather than “culture by media”—that is, culture and community created by face to face contact rather than third-party reports. Both also noted that they found queer communities particularly adept at intergenerational transfer of information and knowledge. […] The symposium closed with a reception at the Power Plant, which besides Möntmann’s exhibition features two other shows riffing on the idea of community and network: […] It’s an open question whether the symposium’s 100-some attendees—curators, students, artists and writers being their own form of “community without community”—felt a suitable balance of cohesion and isolation following the event.
von Leah Sandals, Canadian Art, 24. Januar 2009
info@toronto.goethe.org
Anfahrt
